THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GOVERNOR  OT   CONNECTICUT. 


HISTORY 


OP  THE 


UNITED    STATES, 


FROM    THE 


DISCOVERY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  CONTINENT 


BY  GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


VOL.  II. 


SIXTEENTH    EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 
1858. 


HISTORY 


OF   THE 


COLONIZATION 


OP   THE 


UNITED     STATES. 


BY  GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


VOL.  II. 


SIXTEENTH    EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

LITTLE,   BROWN,  AND   COMPANY. 
1858. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1887,  by 

GEORGE  BANCROFT, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


RIVEBSIDE,  CAMBRIDGE: 
PRINTED  BY  H.  O.  HOUGHTON  AMD  COMPANY. 


College 
Library 

E 
jntf 

621 

l 

CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  STUARTS. 

Failure  of  the  Democratic  Revolution  in  England,  p.  1 — Charles  convenes 
and  dissolves  a  Parliament,  2 — Council  at  York,  3 — Long  Parliament,  4 — 
Death  of  StrafFord — Progress  of  Reforms,  5 — Long  Parliament  becomes  a 
Tyranny,  6 — The  Remonstrance,  7 — Civil  War — Nature  of  the  Contest,  8 — 
Division  of  Parties — Presbyterians  and  Independents,  9 — Cromwell  and  Vane, 
11 — Triumph  of  the  Independents,  14 — Trial  and  Execution  of  Charles  I.,  15 
— The  Counter  Revolution,  18 — Cromwell  and  the  Parliament,  19 — His  Char- 
acter, 20 — His  Parliaments,  23 — His  Death — Richard,  27 — Character  of 
Monk,  28— Restoration,  29— Death  of  Peters,  32— The  Regicides,  34— Henry 
Vane,  36 — Supremacy  claimed  for  Parliament,  41 — Navigation  Acts,  42— 
Character  of  Charles  II.,  48 — Massachusetts,  50 — Connecticut,  51 — Character 
of  the  younger  Winthrop,  52 — His  Success,  54 — History  of  Connecticut,  56 — 
Rhode  Island,  61 — Charter  read  and  accepted,  63 — John  Clarke,  64 — Perfect 
Liberty  of  Conscience,  65 — Maryland,  68 — Virginia — Grants  of  Territory,  69. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

MASSACHUSETTS   AND   CHARLES   II. 

Address  to  the  King,  71 — John  Eliot,  72 — Declaration  of  Rights,  73 — Par- 
ties in  the  Colony,  74 — Intolerance  renewed,  76 — Appointment  of  Royal 
Commissioners,  77 — Remonstrance,  79 — Union  of  Hartford  and  New  Haven, 
83 — Commissioners  in  Plymouth,  84 — in  Massachusetts,  85 — in  New  Hamp- 
shire and  Maine,  86 — Debate  in  the  General  Court,  87 — Conquest  of  Canada 
proposed,  88 — Debate  in  the  Privy  Council,  89 — Prosperity  of  Massachusetts, 
91— Population  of  New  England  in  1675, 92— The  Praying  Indians,  94— Philip 
of  Pokanoket,  98— Causes  of  War,  99— King  Philip's  War,  100— Defeat  of  the 
Pokanokets,  102— Indian  Warfare,  103— Ruin  of  the  Narragansetts,  104— Ca- 
nonchet,  105— Towns  burned — Lancaster — Mary  Rowlandson,  106 — The  Fate 
of  Philip  and  his  Family,  108— The  Result,  109— War  in  Maine,  110— Ran- 
dolph hi  New  England,  111 — Purchase  of  Maine,  113 — New  Government,  114 


1CG5 


Tl  CONTENTS. 

— New  Hampshire  a  royal  Province,  115 — Spirit  of  the  People,  116 — Disputes 
with  Cranfield,  117 — Massachusetts  and  the  Acts  of  Navigation,  120 — The 
Qua  tcarrnnto,  124 — Debate  on  the  required  Surrender,  125 — Judgment,  127. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

SHAFTESBURT   AND   LOCKE   LEGISLATE    FOR    CAROLINA. 

Proprietaries  of  Carolina,  128 — Opposing  Claims,  130 — New  England  Men, 
131— Parties  from  Virginia,  133 — Drummond,  135 — Planters  from  Barba- 
dces,  136 — Second  Charter,  137 — Charter  extended — Ashley  Cooper,  139 — 
John  Locke,  144 — Constitutions,  146 — Rejected  in  North  Carolina,  151 — 
George  Fox,  154 — The  Government  in  North  Carolina,  156 — Insurrection  and 
free  Government,  159 — Seth  Sothel,  163 — Character  of  the  Settlements  in 
North  Carolina,  lt>4  —First  Emigration  to  South  Carolina,  166 — The  Govern- 
ment, 168 — Charleston,  169 — Emigrants — Africans,  170 — Dutch,  171 — Vine- 
dressers— Churchmen — Dissenters,  172 — Irish — Scottish  Presbyterians,  173 — 
Huguenots,  174 — Their  tardy  Enfranchisement,  183 — Contest  between  the 
People  and  the  Proprietaries,  184 — The  People  prevail,  187. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE    COLONIES    ON   THE    CHESAPEAKE    BAT. 

The  People  of  Virginia,  188— Aristocracy,  190— Servants,  191— Slaves,  193 
— Parties  in  Virginia  at  the  Restoration,  195 — The  Royalists  carry  the  Elec- 
tions, 196 — The  Navigation  Act,  197 — Royalist  Legislation — A  State  Reli- 
gion, 200 — A  fixed  Revenue  to  the  Crown,  203 — An  irresponsible  Judiciary 
— Taxation  by  County  Courts,  204 — Law  for  Biennial  Assemblies  abrogated, 
205 — Extravagant  Wages  of  Burgesses,  206 — Universal  Suffrage  abolished, 
207— Charles  II.  gives  away  Virginia,  209— The  Old  Dominion  in  1674,  211— 
Struggle  for  popular  Freedom,  213 — Contests  with  the  Indians,  215 — Nathan- 
iel Bacon,  217 — Royalist  Assembly  dissolved — Popular  Party  elect  a  Majority 
of  the  new  Assembly,  219— Its  Acts,  220— The  grand  Rebellion,  222 — Drum- 
mond's  Proposition,  224 — Bacon  rises,  226 — Jamestown  burned,  227 — Death 
of  Bacon,  228 — Robert  Beverley — Hansford,  229 — Cheesman  and  Wilford, 
230— Drummond,  231— The  Result,  233— Maryland,  234— Death  of  Lord  Bal- 
timore, 238—"  Baconists  "  in  Maryland,  240 — Restrictions  on  Suffrage,  241— 
Protestantism,  243 — A  Tory  President,  244 — Revolution,  245— Culpepper  in 
Virginia,  246 — Increase  of  Royal  Power,  247 — Appeals  to  the  Assembly  pro- 
hibited, 248 — Virginia  redeemed— Howard  of  Effingham,  249— Rebels  sent 
to  Virginia,  250 — Kidnapped  Men  and  Boys,  251 —Despotism,  252 — Resisted, 
85— Tendencies  to  Union,  255. 


CONTENTS.  VII 


CHAPTER    XV. 

NEW    NETHERLANDS. 

Holland  and  Union,  256 — Revolution  in  the  Netherlands,  257 — Holland — 
Zealand,  259— Origin  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  260 — Henry  Hud- 
son, 264 — Sails  up  the  North  River,  266 — The  uncultivated  Wilderness,  267 — 
Geographical  Features,  268 — Progress,  269 — Hudson's  last  Voyage,  270 — 
The  Dutch  traffic  on  the  North  River,  272— Albany,  273— Olden  Barneveld 
and  Grotius  oppose  Colonization  in  America,  274 — West  India  Company  char- 
tered, 275 — Colonization,  277 — Colonial  Diplomacy,  278 — Charter  of  Liberties, 
279 — Monopoly  of  Lands,  280— De  Vries  plants  Delaware,  281 — Dutch  Fort  at 
Hartford,  283 — Gustavus  Adolphus  and  New  Sweden,  284 — Dutch  and  Indian 
Wars,  288 — Roger  Williams  mediates  a  Truce,  291 — Peace,  292 — Stuyve- 
sant's  Administration,  293 — New  England,  294 — New  Albion — New  Sweden, 
295 — Amsterdam  purchases  Delaware,  298 — Emigrants — Jews,  300 — Wal- 
denses,  301 — Huguenots,  302 — Africans,  303 — Dawn  of  Democratic  Liberty, 
304 — Effects  of  the  Restoration  of  Charles  II.,  308 — Conquest  of  New  Neth- 
erlands, 312— New  Jersey,  315— Delaware,  319— New  York,  320— New  York 
reconquered,  322 — Restored — Rights  of  Neutral  Flags,  325. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE  PEOPLE  CALLED  QUAKERS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Unity  of  the  Human  Race — Progress  of  Emancipation,  326 — Power  of  the 
People  in  England,  327 — Progress  of  Intellectual  Freedom,  328 — Speculative 
Truth,  329— Quakers,  330— George  Fox,  331— Struggle  for  Freedom  of  Mind, 
332— Obtains  it,  333— Preaches  Freedom  to  the  People,  334— His  Purpose, 
336— The  Inner  Light — Its  Reality,  337 — Quaker  Method,  the  Method  of  Des- 
cartes, 338 — Asserts  Freedom  of  Conscience,  and  of  Mind,  339 — Repels  Su- 
perstition, 340 — Respects  universal  and  necessary  Truths,  341 — The  Bible,  342 
— Christianity — Philosophy,  343 — Quaker  Morality,  344 — Vows — Power — 
Riches,  345 — Education — Capital  Punishments — Imprisonment  for  Debt — War, 
346 — Common  Prayer — The  Sacraments — Mourning — Oaths — Sensual  Pleas- 
ures— Dress,  347 — Style — Tracts — Hireling  Ministry — Persecution — Resist- 
ance, 348— Quaker  Method  of  Revolution,  349— Power  of  Truth,  350— Faith 
in  Humanity — Universal  Enfranchisement,  351 — Priesthood — Woman,  352 — 
Kings — Noblea — Titles — Hat  Worship,  353 — Influence  of  the  Age  on  Fox, 
354 — Progress  of  his  Opinions,  355 — Quakers  persecuted,  356— They  buy 
West  New  Jersey,  357 — The  Concessions,  358 — The  Quaker  Constitution, 
359 — Relations  with  the  Indians,  360— with  the  Duke  of  York,  361 — Progress 
of  the  Settlement,  362-^William  Penn,  363— Pennsylvania,  364— Letter  to 
the  People,  365— Monopoly,  367— Government,  368— Free  Society— Dela- 
ware, 369— Sails  for  America— Life  of  Penn,  370— John  Locke  and  Penn,  379 


fill  CONTENTS. 

— Pcnn  on  the  Delaware,  382— The  Great  Treaty  with  the  Indians,  383— Or 
ganization  of  the  Government,  386 — Penn  and  Baltimore,  387 — Philadelphia, 
389— Constitutions  established,  390— Trial  for  Witchcraft,  393— Progress,  394 

Penn's  Farewell,  395 — Boundary  with  Maryland,  396 — Penn  in  England, 

397 — His  Fame — His  Fortunes,  400 — Quaker  Legislation,  401 — Indian  Alarm, 
402— Slavery,  403— Death  of  George  Fox,  404. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

JAMES    II.    CONSOLIDATES    THE    NORTHERN    COLONIES. 

Andros  in  New  York,  405 — Claims  Connecticut,  406 — Character  of  James  IL, 
407— His  Colonial  Policy,  408 — New  York  discontented,  409 — East  New  Jer- 
sey, 410 — Cause  of  the  Emigration  of  Scottish  Presbyterians,  411 — No  Per- 
secution in  New  Jersey,  414 — Free  Trade  in  New  York,  415 — Charter  of 
Liberties,  416— The  Five  Nations,  417 — Their  Wars  with  other  Tribes,  418— 
with  the  French,  419— Treaty  at  Albany,  420— War  with  the  French,  423— 
Policy  of  Louis  XIV.,  424 — Magnanimity  of  the  Onondagas,  425 — War 
revived,  426 — Treaty  for  New  England— Dudley,  Andros,  427 — Tyranny,  428 
— John  Wise  resists,  429 — Rhode  Island,  431 — Connecticut,  432 — Consolida- 
tion, 433— England,  Clarendon's  Ministry,  434— The  Cabal,  435— Shaftesbury 
436— Danby,  437— Shaftesbury,  438— Reaction,  440— James  II,  441— Baxter 
442— The  Tories,  the  Whigs,  443 — Penn's  Party,  444 — The  Revolution  of 
1688, 445 — Revolution  in  Massachusetts,  447 — Plymouth,  Rhode  Island,  449 — 
Connecticut,  New  York,  450 — Absolute  Sovereignty  of  Parliament,  451. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

THE   RESULT   THUS   FAR. 

Population  of  the  twelve  oldest  States  in  1688, 452 — Elements  of  the  Country 
— A  free  People,  453 — An  Anglo-Saxon  People — Character  of  the  Virginians, 
454 — A  Christian  People,  455 — A  Protestant  People — Political  Character  of 
Protestantism — Christianity  originally  an  Enfranchisement — Origin  of  the 
Political  Influence  of  the  Seven  Sacraments — The  exclusive  Sacraments  found 
a  spiritual  Tyranny, 456 — Imperfect  Resistance  from  Scholastic  Theologians; 
from  Sensualists ;  from  the  feudal  Aristocracy  ;  from  Monarchs ;  from  Schol- 
irs,  457 — Wickliffe  appeals  to  the  People — John  Huss,  458 — Luther  and  Lu- 
Iheranism,  459 — Anabaptists — Calvin,  461 — Political  Mission  of  Calvinism-  — 
Calvinism  revolutionized  the  English  World,  462 — Calvinism  and  Massachu- 
setts, 463 — Progress  in  New  England— Connecticut,  464 — Rhode  Island— The 
Quakers — Coincidence  of  Quakers  and  Descartes,  465 — America  struggle* 
for  Universality — Influence  on  the  Red  Man — on  the  Black  Maiij  466— 
France,  England,  and  the  Rising  Colonies,  467. 


COLONIAL   HISTORY. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  STUARTS. 

THE  principles  that  should  prevail  in  the  adminis-  CHAP 
tration  of  the    American   colonies,   always  formed    a  ^~ 
dividing  question  between  the  political  parties  in  Eng-  1660 
land.     The  restoration  of  the  legitimate  dynasty  was 
attended  by  a  corresponding  change  in  colonial  policy. 

The  revolution,  which  was  now  come  to  its  end, 
had  been  in  its  origin  a  democratic  revolution,  and 
had  apparently  succeeded  in  none  of  its  ultimate  pur- 
poses. In  the  gradual  progress  of  civilization,  the 
power  of  the  feudal  aristocracy  had  been  broken  by 
the  increased  authority  of  the  monarch  ;  and  the  peo- 
ple, now  beginning  to  claim  the  lead  in  the  progress 
of  humanity,  prepared  to  contend  for  equality  against 
privilege,  as  well  as  for  freedom  against  prerogative. 
The  contest  failed  for  a  season,  because  too  much  was 
at  once  attempted.  Immediate  emancipation  from  the 
decaying  institutions  of  the  past  was  impossible  ;  he- 
reditary inequalities  were  themselves  endeared  to  the 
nation,  from  a  love  for  the  beneficent  institutions  with 
which  close  union  had  identified  them ;  the  mass  of 
the  people  was  still  buried  in  the  inactivity  of  listless 
ignorance  ;  even  for  the  strongest  minds,  public  expe- 
rience had  not  yet  generated  the  principles  by  which 

VOL.    II.  1 


2  PARLIAMENT  OF   1640. 

CHAP  a  reconstruction  of  the  government  on  a  popular  basis 
•~*^  could  have  been  safely  undertaken ;  and  thus  the 
democratic  revolution  in  England  was  a  failure,  alike 
from  the  events  and  passions  of  the  fierce  struggle 
which  rendered  moderation  impossible,  and  from  the 
misfortune  of  the  age,  which  had  not  as  yet  acquired 
the  political  knowledge  that  time  alone  could  gather 
for  the  use  of  later  generations. 

1629  Charles  I.,  conspiring  against  the  national  constitu- 
1640  t'on'  wmc^  ne>  as  tne  most  favored  among  the  natives 
of  England,  was  the  most  solemnly  bound  to  protect, 
had  resolved  to  govern  without  the  aid  of  a  parliament. 
To  convene  a  parliament  was,  therefore,  in  itself,  an 
1640.  acknowledgment  of  defeat.  The  house  of  commons, 
April  which  assembled  in  April,  1640,  was  filled  with  men 
not  less  loyal  to  the  monarch  than  faithful  to  the 
people  ;  yet  the  king,  who  had  neither  the  resignation 
of  wise  resolution,  nor  yet  the  daring  of  despair,  per- 
petually vacillating  between  the  desire  of  destroying 
English  liberty,  and  a  timid  respect  for  its  forms,  dis- 
regarded the  wishes  of  his  more  prudent  friends,  and, 
under  the  influence  of  capricious  passion,  suddenly 
May  dissolved  a  parliament  more  favorable  to  his  interests 
than  any  which  he  could  again  hope  from  the  excite- 
ment of  the  times.  The  friends  of  the  popular  party 
were  elated  at  the  dissolution.  "  This  parliament 
could  have  remedied  the  confusion,"  said  the  royalist 
Hyde,  afterwards  earl  of  Clarendon,  to  St.  John.  The 
countenance  of  the  sombre  republican,  usually  clouded 
with  gloom,  beamed  with  cheerfulness  as  he  replied, 
"  All  is  well ;  things  must  be  worse  before  they  can 
be  better ;  this  parliament  could  never  have  done  what 
is  necessary  to  be  done."  1 

1  Clarendon,  i.  140. 


NECESSITY    OF  A   NEW    PARLIAMENT 

The  exercise  of  absolute  power  was  become  more  CIIAI- 
difficult  than  ever.  The  haughty  Strafford  had  advised  -~^ 
violent  counsels.  There  were  those  who  refused  164C 
to  take  the  oath  never  to  consent  to  alterations  in  the 
church  of  England.  "  Send  for  the  chief  leaders," 
wrote  Strafford,1  "  and  lay  them  by  the  heels ;  no 
other  satisfaction  is  to  be  thought  of."  But  Strafford 
was  not  without  his  enemies  among  the  royalists. 
During  the  suspension  of  parliament,  two  parties  in 
the  cabinet  had  disputed  with  each  other  the  adminis- 
tration and  the  emoluments  of  despotism.  The  power 
of  the  ministers  and  the  council  of  state  was  envied  by 
the  ambition  of  the  queen  and  the  greedy  selfishness 
of  the  courtiers ;  and  the  arrogant  Strafford  and  the 
unbending  Laud  had  as  bitter  rivals  in  the  palace  as 
they  had  enemies  in  the  nation.  There  was  no  unity 
among  the  friends  of  absolute  power. 

The  expedient  of  a  council  of  peers,  convened  at  Sept 
York,  could  not  satisfy  a  people  that  venerated  repre- 
sentative government  as  the  most  valuable  bequest  of 
its  ancestors  ;  and  a  few  weeks  made  it  evident  that 
concession  was  necessary.  The  councils  of  Charles 
were  divided  by  hesitancy,  rivalries,  and  the  want  of 
plan  ;  while  the  popular  leaders  were  full  of  energy 
and  union,  and  were  animated  by  what  seemed  a  dis- 
tinct purpose,  the  desire  of  limiting  the  royal  authority. 
The  summons  of  a  new  parliament  was  now  on  the 
part  of  the  monarch  a  surrender  at  discretion.  But  by 
the  English  constitution,  the  royal  prerogative  was  in 
some  cases  the  bulwark  of  popular  liberty ;  the  sub- 
version of  the  royal  authority  made  a  way  for  the 
despotism  of  parliament. 

'  Stafford's  Letters,  ii.  409.    AprU  10,  1640. 


£  MEETING  OF  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 

"HAP.  The  Long  Parliament  was  not  originally  homogc- 
«— v-^  neous.  The  usurpations  of  the  monarch  threatened 
1640.  the  privileges  of  the  nobility  not  less  than  the  liberties 
a  of  the  people.  The  movement  in  the  public  mind, 
though  it  derived  its  vigor  as  well  as  its  origin  from  the 
rising  influence  of  the  Puritans,  was  not  directed  to- 
wards vindicating  power  for  the  people,  but  only  aimed 
at  raising  an  impassable  barrier  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  royalty.  The  object  met  with  favor  from  a 
majority  of  the  peerage,  and  from  royalists  among  the 
commons  ;  and  the  past  arbitrary  measures  of  the  court 
found  opponents  in  Hyde,  the  inflexible  tory  and 
faithful  counsellor  of  the  Stuarts ;  in  the  more  scrupu- 
lous Falkland,  who  hated  falsehood  and  intrigue,  and 
whose  imagination  inclined  him  to  the  popular  side, 
till  he  began  to  dread  innovations  from  its  leaders  more 
than  from  the  ambition  of  the  king ;  and  even  in  Capel, 
afterwards  one  of  the  bravest  of  the  Cavaliers,  and  a 
martyr  on  the  scaffold  for  his  obstinate  fidelity.  The 
highest  authority  in  England  began  to  belong  to  the 
majority  in  parliament ;  no  republican  party  as  yet 
existed  ;  the  first  division  ensued  between  the  ultra 
royalists  and  the  vast  undivided  party  of  the  friends  of 
constitutional  monarchy ;  and  though  the  house  was  in 
a  great  measure  filled  with  members  of  the  aristocracy, 
the  moderate  royalists  were  united  with  the  friends  of 
the  people  ;  and,  on  the  choice  of  speaker,  an  immense 
majority  appeared  in  favor  of  the  constitution. 

The  sagacity  of  the  earl  of  Strafford  anticipated 
danger  and  he  desired  to  remain  in  Ireland.  "  As  1 
am  king  of  England,"  said  Charles,1  "  the  parliament 
shall  not  touch  one  hair  of  your  head ; "  and  the  re- 

i  Whitelocke,  36. 


STRAFFORD.     PROGRESS   OF  REFORM. 

iterated  urgency  of  the  king  compelled  his  attendance.  CHAP 
His  arraignment,  within  eight  days  of  the  commence-  — >— 
merit  of  the  session,  marks  the  resolute  spirit  of  the  Nov. 
commons  ;  his  attainder  was  the  sign  of  their  ascend- 
ency.  "  On  the  honor  of  a  king,"  wrote  l  Charles  to 
the  prisoner,  "  you  shall  not  be  harmed  in  life,  fortune, 
or  honor ;"  and  the  fourth  day  after  the  passage  of  the 
bill  of  attainder,  as  if  to  reveal  his  weakness,  the  king 
could  send  his  adhesion  to  the  commons,  adding,  "  If 
Strafford  must  die,  it  were  charity  to  reprieve  him  till  May 
Saturday."  2  Men  dreaded  the  service  of  a  sovereign 
whose  love  was  so  worthless,  and  whose  prerogative 
was  so  weak  ;  safety  was  found  on  the  side  of  the 
people  ;  and  the  parliament  was  left  without  control  to 
its  work  of  reform.  Its  earliest  acts  were  worthy  of 
all  praise.  The  liberties  of  the  people  were  recovered 
and  strengthened  by  appropriate  safeguards ;  the 
arbitrary  courts  of  High  Commission,  and  the  court  of 
Wards,  were  broken  up  ;  the  Star  Chamber,  doubly 
hated  by  the  aristocracy,  as  "  ever  a  great  eclipse  to 
the  whole  nobility,"3  was  with  one  voice  abolished; 
the  administration  of  justice  was  rescued  from  the 
paramount  influence  of  the  crown  ;  and  taxation,  except 
by  consent,  was  forbidden.  The  principle  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  was  introduced  ;  and  the  kingdom 
of  England  was  lifted  out  of  the  bondage  of  feudalism 
by  a  series  of  reforms,  which  were  afterwards  renewed, 
and  which,  when  successfully  imbodied  among  the 
statutes,  the  commentator  on  English  law  esteemed 
above  Magna  Charta  itself.4  These  measures  were 
national,  were  adopted  almost  without  opposition,  and 

1  Strafford's  Letters,  ii.  416.  3  Lord    Andover,    in  Macauley, 

2  Burnet,   i.  43.     Compare   1  dn-     iii.  3.     Rushworth,  iv.  204. 
yard's  note,  x.  c.  ii   108,  109.  4  Blackstone,  b.  iv.  c.  xxxiii.  437 


6  THE  LONG  PARLIAMENT. 

2HAP.  received  the  nearly  unanimous  assent  of  the   nation. 

XI 

— v^~  They  were  truly  English  measures,  directed  in  part 
1 041  against  the  abuses  introduced  at  the  Norman  conquest, 
in  part  against  the  encroachments  of  the  sovereign. 
They  wiped  away  the  traces  that  England  had  been 
governed  as  a  conquered  country ;  they  were  in  har- 
mony with  the  intelligence  and  the  pride,  the  preju- 
dices and  the  wants  of  England.  Public  opinion  was 
the  ally  of  the  parliament. 

But  an  act  declaring  that  the  parliament  should 
neither  be  prorogued  nor  dissolved,  unless  with  its  o\vn 
consent,  had  also  been  proposed,  and  urged  with  per- 
tinacity till  it  received  the  royal  concurrence.  Parlia- 
ment, in  its  turn,  subverted  the  constitution,  by  estab- 
lishing its  own  paramount  authority,  and  making  itself 
virtually  irresponsible  to  its  constituents ;  it  was  evident 
a  parliamentary  despotism  would  ensue.  The  English 
government  was  substantially  changed,  in  a  manner 
injurious  to  the  power  of  the  executive,  and  still  more 
dangerous  to  the  freedom  of  the  people.  The  king,  in 
so  far  as  he  opposed  the  measure,  was  the  friend  of 
popular  liberty ;  the  passage  of  the  act  placed  the 
people  of  England,  not  less  than  the  king,  at  the  mercy 
of  the  parliament.  The  methods  of  tyranny  are  always 
essentially  the  same  ;  the  freedom  of  the  press  was 
subjected  to  parliamentary  censors.  The  usurpation 
foreboded  the  subversion  of  the  throne,  and  the  sub- 
jection of  the  people.  The  liberators  of  England  were 
become  its  tyrants ;  the  rights  of  the  nation  had  been 
asserted  only  to  be  sequestered  for  their  use. 

The  spirit  of  loyalty  was  still  powerful  in  the  com- 
mons ;  as  the  demands  of  the  commons  advanced, 
stormy  debates  and  a  close  division  ensued.  Falkland, 
and  Capel,  and  Hyde,  now  acted  with  the  court.  The 


CONTEST  BETWEEN  LOYALTY  AND  REVOLUTION.         / 

remonstrance  on  the  state  of  the  kingdom,  an  uncom-  CHAF 

XI. 

promising  manifesto  against  the  arbitrary  measures  of  —  ^' 
Charles,  was  democratic  in  its  tendency;  because  it 
proposed  no  specific  reform,  but  was  rathei  a  general 
and  exciting  appeal  to  popular  opinion.  The  English 
mind  was  already  as  restless  as  the  waves  of  the  ocean 
by  which  the  island  is  environed  ;  the  remonstrance 
was  designed  to  increase  that  restlessness  ;  in  a  house 
of  more  than  five  hundred  members,  it  was  adopted  by 
the  meagre  majority  of  eleven.  "  Had  it  not  been 


carried,"  said  Cromwell  to  Falkland,  "  I  should  have 
sold  all  I  possess,  and  left  the  kingdom  ;  many  honest 
men  were  of  the  same  resolution."  From  the  contest 
for  "  English  liberties  "  men  advanced  to  the  discus- 
sion of  natural  rights  ;  with  the  expansion  of  their 
views,  their  purposes  ceased  to  be  definite  ;  and 
already  reform  was  changing  into  a  revolution.  They 
were  prepared  to  strip  the  church  of  its  power,  and 
royalty  of  its  prescriptive  sanctity  ;  and  it  was  observ- 
able, that  religious  faith  was  on  the  side  of  innovation, 
while  incredulity  abounded  among  the  supporters  of 
the  divine  right. 

The  policy  of  the  king  preserved  its  character  of 
variableness.  He  had  yielded  where  he  should  have 
been  firm  ;  and  he  now  invited  a  revolution  by  the 
violence  of  his  counsels.  Moderation  and  sincerity 
would  have  restored  his  influence.  But  when,  attended  I<342 
by  armed  men,  he  repaired  in  person  to  the  house  of  4^" 
commons,  with  the  intent  of  seizing  six  of  the  leaders 
of  the  patriot  party,  whose  execution  was  to  soothe  hi- 
fears,  and  tranquillize  his  hatred,  the  extreme  pro- 
cedure, so  bloody  in  its  purpose,  and  so  illegal  in  its 
course,  could  only  rouse  the  nation  to  anger  against  its 
sovereign,  justify  for  the  time  every  diminution  of  his 


8  PROGRESS   OF   REVOLUTION. 

CHAP,  prerogative,  and,  by  inspiring  settled  distrust,  animate 
^^-  the  leaders  of  the  popular  party  to  a  gloomy  inflexi- 
1642.  bility.     There  was  no  room  to  hope  for  peace.     The 
monarch  was  faithless,  and  the  people  knew  no  remedy. 
A  change   of  dynasty  was  not   then  proposed  ;   and 
England  languished  of  a  disease  for  which  no  cure  had 
been  discovered.     It  was  evident  that  force  must  de- 
cide   the    struggle.      The    parliament   demanded    the 
control  of  the  national  militia  with  the  possession  of 
the  fortified  towns.     But  would  the  Cavaliers  consent 
to  surrender  all  military  power  to  plebeian  statesmen  j3 
Would  the  nobility  endure  that  men  should  exercise 
dominion  over  the  king,  whose  predecessors  their  an 
cestors   had    hardly  been    permitted    to   serve  ?      To 
Charles,  who  had  had  neither  firmness  to  maintain  his 
just  authority,  nor  sincerity  to  effect  a  safe  reconcilia- 
tion,  no  alternative   remained,   but  resistance  or   the 
A        surrender  of  all  power  ;  and,  unfurling  the  royal  stand- 
24.     ard,  he  began  a  civil  war. 

The  contest  was  between  a  permanent  parliament 
and  an  arbitrary  king.  The  people  had  no  mode  of 
intervention  except  by  serving  in  the  armies  ;  they 
could  not  come  forward  as  mediators  or  as  masters. 
The  parliament  was  become  a  body,  of  which  the 
duration  depended  on  its  own  will ;  unchecked  by  a 
supreme  executive,  or  by  an  independent  coordinate 
branch  of  legislation  ;  and,  therefore,  of  necessity,  a 
multitudinous  despot,  unbalanced  and  irresponsible : 
levying  taxes,  enlisting  soldiers,  commanding  the  navy 
and  the  army,  enacting  laws,  and  changing  at  its  will 
the  forms  of  the  English  constitution.  The  issue  was 
certain.  Every  representative  body  is  swayed  by  the 
interests  of  its  constituents,  the  interests  of  its  own 
assembly,  and  the  personal  interests  of  its  respective 


DESPOTIC   POWER  OF  THE   PARLIAMENT. 

members  :  and  never  was  the  successive  predominance  CHAP 

XI. 

of  each  of  these  sets  of  motives  more  clear  than  in  the  — v^ 
Long  Parliament.  Its  first  acts  were  mainly  for  its 
constituents,  whose  rights  it  vindicated,  and  whose 
liberties  it  increased ;  its  corporate  ambition  next 
prevailed,  and  it  set  itself  against  the  throne  and  the 
peerage,  both  of  which  it  was  hurried  forward  to  sub- 
vert ;  individual  selfishness  at  last  had  its  triumph,  and 
there  were  not  wanting  men  who  sought  lucrative  jobs, 
and  grasped  at  disproportioned  emoluments.  Nothing 
could  check  the  progress  of  degeneracy  and  corruption  ; 
the  example,  the  ability,  and  the  conscientious  purity 
of  Henry  Vane  were  unavailing.  Had  the  life  of 
Hampden  been  spared,  he  could  not  have  changed  the 
course  of  events,  for  he  could  not  have  changed  the 
laws  of  nature,  and  the  principles  of  human  action. 

The  majority  in  parliament  was  become  the  despot 
of  England;  and  after  one  hundred  and  eighteen  1614 
royalist  members,  obeying  the  summons  of  the  king, 
had  repaired  to  Oxford,  the  cause  of  royalty  was  pow- 
erless in  the  legislature.  The  party  of  the  Church  of 
England  was  prostrate ;  but  religious  and  political 
parties  wer3  identified  ;  and  the  new  division  con- 
formed itse  f  to  the  rising  religious  sects.  Now  that 
the  friends  of  the  Church  had  withdrawn,  the  commons 
were  at  once  divided  into  two  imposing  parties — the 
Presbyterians  and  the  Independents  ;  the  friends  of  a 
political  revolution  which  should  yet  establish  a  no- 
bility and  a  limited  monarchy ;  and  the  friends  of  an 
entire  revolution  on  the  principle  of  equality. 

The  majority  was  with  the  Presbyter  ins,  who  were 
elated  with  the  sure  hope  of  a  triumph.  They  repre- 
sented a  powerful  portion  of  the  aristocracy  of  Eng- 

VOL.  II.  2 


10  PRESBYTERIANS   AND  INDEPENDENTS 

CHAP,  land ;  they  had,  besides  a  majority  in  the  commons, 
-v^-  the  exclusive  possession  of  the  house  of  lords  ;  they 
held  the  command  of  the  army ;  they  had  numerous 
and  active  adherents  among  the  clergy;  the  English 
people  favored  them ;  Scotland,  which  had  been  so 
efficient  in  all  that  had  thus  far  been  done,  was  entirely 
devoted  to  their  interests ;  and  they  hoped  for  a  com- 
promise with  their  sovereign.  They  envied  the  success 
of  tyranny  more  than  they  abhorred  its  principles : 
monarchy,  with  Presbyterianism  as  the  religion  of 
state,  was  then-  purpose  ;  and  they  were  at  all  times 
prepared  to  make  peace  with  the  king,  if  he  would  but 
consent  to  that  revolution  in  the  Church  which  would 
secure  their  political  ascendency. 

And  what  counterpoise  could  be  offered  by  the  Inde- 
pendents ?  How  could  they  hope  for  superior  influ- 
ence, when  it  could  be  gained  only  by  rising  above  the 
commons,  the  peers,  the  commanders  of  the  army,  all 
Scotland,  and  the  mass  of  the  English  people  ?  They 
had  no  omen  of  success  but  the  tendency  of  revolutions, 
the  enthusiasm  of  new  opinions,  the  inclination  of  the 
human  mind  to  push  principles  to  their  remoter  conse- 
quences. An  amalgamation  with  the  Presbyterians 
would  have  implied  subjection  ;  power  could  be  gained 
only  by  that  progress  in  innovations  which  would  drive 
the  Presbyterians  into  opposition.  The  Independents, 
sharing  in  the  agitation  of  the  public  mind,  made  the 
new  ideas  the  support  of  their  zeal,  and  the  basis  of 
their  party.  They  gradually  became  the  advocates  of 
religious  liberty  and  the  power  of  the  people.  Their 
eyes  were  turned  towards  democratic  institutions ;  and 
the  glorious  vision  of  emancipating  the  commons  of  Eng- 
land from  feudal  oppression,  from  intellectual  servitude, 
and  from  a  long  aristocracy  of  superstition,  inflamed 


PRESBYTERIANS   AND   INDEPENDENTS  11 

them  with  an  enthusiasm  which  would  not  be  rebuked  CHAP 

XI 

by  the  inconsistency  of  their  schemes  with  the  opinions,  — -v— 
habits,  and  institutions  of  the  nation. 

The  Presbyterian  nobility,  who  had  struggled  for 
I  heir  privileges  against  royal  power,  were  unwilling 
l  hat  innovation  should  go  so  far  as  to  impair  their  rank 
or  diminish  their  grandeur ;  the  Independents,  as  new 
mon,  who  had  their  fortunes  to  make,  were  prepared 
not  only  to  subvert  the  throne,  but  to  contend  for 
equality  against  privilege.  "  The  Presbyterian  earl 
of  Manchester,"  said  Cromwell,  "  shall  be  content  with 
being  no  more  than  plain  Montague."  The  men  who 
broke  away  from  the  forms  of  society,  and  venerated 
nothing  but  truth ;  others  who,  in  the  folly  of  their  pride, 
claimed  for  their  opinions  the  sanctity  and  the  rights 
of  truth ;  they  who  sighed  for  a  more  equal  diffusion 
of  social  benefits ;  the  friends  of  entire  liberty  of  con- 
science ;  the  friends  of  a  reform  in  the  law,  and  a 
diminution  of  the  profits  of  the  lawyers  ;  the  men,  like 
Milton  and  Sidney,  whose  imagination  delighted  in 
pictures  of  Roman  liberty,  of  Spartan  virtue  ;  the  less 
educated,  who  indulged  in  visions  of  a  restoration  ol 
that  happy  Anglo-Saxon  system,  which  had  been 
invented  in  the  woods  in  days  of  Anglo-Saxon  sim- 
plicity ;  the  republicans,  the  levellers,  the  fanatics, — all 
ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  new  ideas. 

o 

The  true  representative  of  the  better  principles  of 
the  Independents  was  Henry  Vane ;  but  the  acknowl 
edged  leader  of  the  party  was  Oliver  Cromwell.  Was 
he  sincere  ?  Or  was  he  wholly  a  hypocrite  ?  It  is 
difficult  to  disbelieve  that  his  mind  was  honestly 
imbued  with  the  extreme  principles  of  Puritan  reforms; 
but  the  man  whose  ruling  motive  is  ambition,  soon 


12  PRESBYTERIANS  AND   INDEPENDENTS. 

:;HAP.  gains  the  mastery  over  his  own  convictions,  and  values 

— <-•-  and  employs  ideas  only  as  instruments  to  his  advance- 
ment. Self-love  easily  dupes  conscience  ;  and  Crom- 
well may  have  always  believed  himself  faithful  to  the 
interest  of  England.  All  great  men  are  inclined  to 
fatalism;  for  their  success  is  a  mystery  to  themselves; 
and  it  was  not  entirely  with  hypocrisy,  that  Cromwell, 
to  the  last,  professed  himself  the  servant  of  Providence, 
borne  along  by  irresistible  necessity. 

Had  peace  never  been  broken,  the  Independents 
would  have  remained  a  powerless  minority  ;  the  civil 
war  gave  them  a  rallying  point  in  the  army.  In  the 
season  of  great  public  excitement,  fanatics  crowded  to 
the  camp  ;  an  ardor  for  popular  liberty  mingled  with 
the  fervors  of  religious  excitement.  Cromwell  had 
early  perceived  that  the  honor  and  valor  of  the  Cavaliers 
could  never  be  overthrown  by  ordinary  hirelings  ;  he 
therefore  sought  to  fill  the  ranks  of  his  army  with 
enthusiasts.  His  officers  were  alike  ready  to  preach 
and  pray,  and  to  take  the  lead  in  the  field  of  battle 
With  much  hypocrisy,  his  camp  was  the  scene  of  much 
real  piety;  and  long  afterwards,  when  his  army 
was  disbanded,  its  members,  who,  for  the  most  part, 
were  farmers  and  the  sons  of  farmers,  resumed 
their  places  among  the  industrious  classes  of  society ; 
while  the  soldiers  of  the  royalists  were  often  found  in 
the  ranks  of  vagabonds  and  beggars.  It  was  the  troops 
of  Cromwell  that  first,  in  the  open  field,  broke  the 

K>44.  ranks  of  the  royal  squadrons  ;  and  the  decisive  victory 
2 J    of  Marston   Moor  was  won   by  the   iron   energy  and 
falor  of  the  godly  saints  whom  he  had  enlisted. 

1647.       The  final  overthrow  of  the  prospects  of  Charles  in 
the  field,  marks  the  crisis  of  the  struggle  for  the  as- 


PRESBYTERIANS   AND   INDEPENDENTS.  13 

cendant  between  the  Presbyterians  aiyl  Independents.  CHAP 
The  former  party  had  its  organ  in  the  parliament,  the  — v^ 
latter  in  the  army,  in  which  the  Presbyterian  com- 
mander had  been  surprised  into  a  resignation  by  the 
self-denying  ordinance,  and  the  intrigues  of  Cromwell. 
As  the  duration  of  the  parliament  was  unlimited,  the 
army  refused  to  be  disbanded  ;  claiming  to  represent 
the  interests  of  the  people,  and  actually  constituting 
the  only  balance  to  the  otherwise  unlimited  power  of 
the  parliament.  The  army  could  call  the  parliament  a 
usurper,  and  the  parliament  could  arraign  the  army  as 
a  branch  of  the  public  service,  whose  duty  was  obe- 
dience, and  not  counsel.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
parliament  pleaded  its  office  as  the  grand  council  of  the 
nation,  the  army  could  urge  its  merits  as  the  active 
and  successful  antagonist  to  royal  despotism. 

The  new  crisis  was  inevitable.  The  Presbyterians  1647 
broke  forth  into  menaces  against  the  army.  "  These 
men,"  whispered  Cromwell  to  Ludlow,  "  will  never 
leave  till  the  army  pull  them  out  by  the  ears."  1  The 
Presbyterian  majority  was  in  a  false  position  ;  it  ap- 
peared to  possess  paramount  power,  and  did  not  actu- 
ally possess  it.  Could  they  gain  the  person  of  the 
king,  and  succeed  in  pacific  negotiations,  their  influ- 
ence would  be  renewed  by  the  natural  love  of  order  in 
the  minds  of  the  English  people.  A  collision  with  the 
Independents  was  unavoidable  ;  for  the  Independents 
could  in  no  event  negotiate  with  the  king.  In  every 
negotiation  a  free  parliament  must  have  been  a  con- 
dition ;  and  a  free  parliament  would  have  been  their 
doom.  Self-preservation,  uniting  with  ambition  and 
wild  enthusiasm,  urged  them  to  uncompromising  hos- 
tility with  Charles  I.  He  or  they  must  perish.  "  If 

1  Ludlow,  73. 


14  THE  ARMY  EXPELS  THE  PRESBYTERIANS. 

CHAP,  my  head  or  the  king's  must  fall,"  argued  Cromwell, 
— ^  "  can  I  hesitate  which  to  choose  ?  "  By  an  act  of 
violence  the  Independents  seized  on  the  king,  and  held 
him  in  their  special  custody.  "  Now,"  said  the  exult- 
ing Cromwell,  "  now  that  I  have  the  king  in  my  hands, 
I  have  the  parliament  in  rny  pocket." 

At  length  the  Presbyterian  majority,  sustained  bj 
the  admirable  eloquence  of  Prynne,  attempted  to  dis- 
IC48  pense  with  the  army,  and  by  a  decided  vote  resolved 
5^c'  to  make  peace  with  the  king.  To  save  its  party 
from  an  entire  defeat,  the  army  interposed,  and 
&c  "  purged  "  the  house  of  commons.  "  Hear  us,"  said 
the  excluded  members  to  Colonel  Pride,  who  expelled 
them.  "  I  cannot  spare  the  time,"  replied  the  soldier. 
"  By  what  right  are  we  arrested  ?  "  demanded  they  of 
the  extravagant  Hugh  Peters.  "  By  the  right  of  the 
sword,"  answered  the  late  envoy  from  Massachusetts. 
"  You  are  called,"  said  he,  as  he  preached  to  the  deci- 
mated parliament,  "  to  lead  the  people  out  of  Egyptian 
bondage ;  this  army  must  root  up  monarchy,  not  only 
here,  but  in  France  and  other  kingdoms  round  about." * 
Cromwell,  the  night  after  "the  interruption,"  reiter- 
ated, "  I  knew  nothing  of  these  late  proceedings  ;  but 
since  the  work  has  been  done,  I  am  glad  of  it,  and  will 
endeavor  to  maintain  it."2 

When  the  house  of  commons  had  thus  been  elimi- 
nated, there  remained  few  beside  republicans  ;  and  it 
was  resolved  to  bring  the  unhappy  monarch  to  trial 
before  a  special  commission.  "  Providence  and  neces- 
sity," said  Cromwell,  affecting  indecision,  "  have  cast 
the  house  upon  this  deliberation.  I  shall  pray  God  to 
bless  our  counsels." 3  The  young  and  sincere  Alger- 

1  C.  Walker,  Hist  of  Independency,  ii.  50,51  (published  anonymously  L 
by  Theodorus  Verax. 

a  Ludlow,  105.  3  Walker,  ii.  54 


TRIAL  OF  CHARLES  I.  16 

non  Sidney  opposed,  and  saw  the  danger  of  a  counter  CHAP 
revolution.  "  No  on  3  will  stir,"  cried  Cromwell  impa-  -— v— 
tiently  ;•  "  I  tell  you  we  will  cut  off  his  head  with  the 
crown  on  it." l  Sidney  withdrew ;  and  Charles  was 
abandoned  to  the  sanguinary  severity  of  a  sect.  To 
sign  the  death-warrant  was  a  solemn  deed,  from  which 
some  of  his  judges  were  ready  to  shrink  ;  Cromwell 
concealed  the  magnitude  of  the  act  under  an  air  of 
buffoonery ;  the  chamber  rung  with  gayety  ;  he  daubed 
the  cheek  of  one  of  the  judges  that  sat  next  him  with 
ink,  and,  amidst  shouts  of  laughter,  compelled  another, 
the  wavering  Ingoldsby,  to  sign  the  paper  as  a  jest. 
The  ambassadors  of  foreign  princes,  eager  to  make 
purchases  when  the  collections  of  the  unhappy  king 
were  sold  at  auction,  presented  no  remonstrance. 
Holland  alone  negotiated.  The  English  people  were 
overawed. 

Treason  against  the  state,  on  the  part  of  its  highest 
officers,  is  the  darkest  of  human  offences.  Fidelity  to 
the  constitution  is  due  from  every  citizen ;  in  a  mon- 
arch, the  debt  of  gratitude  is  enhanced,  for  the  monarch 
is  the  hereditary  and  special  favorite  of  the  fundamental 
laws.  The  murderer,  even  where  his  victim  is  eminent 
for  genius  and  virtue,  destroys  what  time  will  repair , 
and,  deep  as  is  his  guilt,  society  suffers  but  transiently 
from  the  transgression.  Bui  the  king  who  conspires 
against  the  liberties  of  the  nation,  conspires  to  subvert 
the  most  precious  bequest  of  past  ages,  the  dearest 
hope  of  future  time  ;  he  would  destroy  genius  in  its 
birth,  and  enterprise  in  its  sources,  and  sacrifice  the. 
prolific  causes  of  intelligence  and  virtue  to  his  avarice 
or  his  vanity,  his  caprices  or  his  ambition ;  would  rob 

i  See  Godwin,  il  669 


16  EXECUTION  OF  CHARLES  I. 

CHAP  the  nation  of  its  nationality,  the  people  of  the  preroga 
~^*-  tives  of  man  ;  would  deprive  common  life  of  its  sweets, 
by  depriving  it  of  its  security,  and  religion  of  its  power 
to  solace,  by  subjecting  it  to  supervision  and  control. 
,  His  crime  would  not  only  enslave  a  present  race  of 
men,  but  forge  chains  for  unborn  generations.     There 
can  be  no  fouler  deed. 

Tried  by  the  standard  of  his  own  intentions  and  hi? 
own  actions,  Charles  I.,  it  may  be,  had  little  right  to 
complain.  Yet  when  history  gives  its  impartial  verdict1 
on  the  execution,  it  remembers  that,  by  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land, the  meanest  individual  could  claim  a  trial  by  his 
peers  ;  and  that  the  king  was  delivered,  by  a  decimated 
parliament,  which  had  prejudged  his  case,  to  a  com- 
mission composed  of  his  bitter  and  uncompromising 
enemies,  and  erected  in  defiance  of  the  wishes  of  the 
people.  His  judges  were  but  a  military  tribunal  ; 
and  the  judgment  which  assumed  to  be  a  solemn 
exercise  of  justice  on  the  worst  of  criminals,  ar- 
raigned by  a  great  nation,  and  tried  by  its  representa- 
tives, was  in  truth  an  act  of  tyranny.  His  accusers 
could  have  rightfully  proceeded  only  as  the  agents  of 
the  popular  sovereignty  ;  and  the  people  disclaimed  the 
deed.  An  appeal  to  the  people  would  have  reversed 
the  decision.  The  Churchmen,  the  Presbyterians,  the 
lawyers,  the  opulent  landholders,  the  merchants,  and 
the  great  majority  of  the  English  nation,  preferred  the 
continuance  of  a  limited  monarchy.  There  could  be 
no  republic ;  there  was  no  republic.  Not  sufficient 
advancement  had  been  made  in  political  knowledge 
Milton  believed  himself  a  friend  of  popular  liberty  ;  ana 
yet  his  scheme  of  government,  which  proposed  to  sub- 

1  William  Prynne's  Protestation,    ii.    52 — 54.     So,  too,   Mayhew   of 
in  Walker's   Anarchia   Anglicana,     Boston.    Mass.  Ilist  Coll.  ii.  35. 


TRIUMPH   OF  THE   COMMONS.  17 

ject  England  to  the  executive  power  of  a  self-perpet-  CHAP 
uating  council,  was  far  less  favorable  to  equal    free-  ~~~ *"- 
dom  and  to  progress  than  monarchy  itself.     Not  one 
of  the  proposed  methods  of  government  was  capable  of 
being  realized.      Lilbourne's  was,  perhaps,  the  most 
consistent,  but  was  equally  impracticable. 

If  the  execution  of  Charles  be  considered  by  the  rule 
of  utility,  its  effects  will  be  found  to  have  been  entirely 
bad.  A  free  parliament  would  have  saved  the  king, 
and  reformed  church  and  state ;  in  aiming  at  the 
immediate  enjoyment  of  democratic  liberty,  the  states- 
men of  that  day  long  delayed  the  actual  progress  of 
popular  enfranchisements.  Nations  change  their  insti- 
tutions but  slowly :  to  attempt  to  pass  abruptly  from 
feudalism  and  monarchy  to  democratic  equality,  was 
the  thought  of  enthusiasts,  who  understood  neither  the 
history,  the  character,  nor  the  condition  of  the  country. 
It  was  like  laying  out  into  entirely  new  streets,  a  city 
that  was  already  crowded  with  massive  structures, 
resting  on  firm  foundations.  Cromwell  alone  profited 
by  the  death  of  the  king  :  the  deed  was  his  policy,  and 
not  the  policy  of  the  nation. 

The  remaining  members  of  the  commons  were  now 
by  their  own  act  constituted  the  sole  legislature  and 
sovereign  of  England.  The  peerage  was  abolished 
with  monarchy ;  the  connection  between  state  and 
church  rent  asunder ;  but  there  was  no  republic.  Self- 
ish ambition  forbade  it ;  the  state  of.  society  and  the 
distribution  and  tenure  of  property  forbade  it.  The 
commons  usurped  not  only  all  powers  of  ordinary  legis- 
lation, but  even  the  right  of  remoulding  the  constitu- 
tion. They  were  a  sort  of  collective*,  self-constituted, 
perpetual  dictatorship.  Like  Rome  under  its  decem- 
viri, England  was  enslaved  by  its  legislators  ;  English 

VOL.  II.  3 


18  COUNTER  REVOLUTION. 

CHAP,  liberty  had  oecome  the  patrimony  and  estate  of  the 
— ~  commons  ;  the  forms  of  government,  the  courts  of  jus- 
tice, peace  and  war,  all  executive,  all  legislative  power, 
rested  with  them.  They  were  irresponsible,  absolute, 
and  apparently  never  to  be  dissolved  but  at  their  own 
pleasure. 

But  the  commons  were  not  sustained  by  the  public 
opinion  of  the  nation.  They  were  resisted  by  the 
royalists  and  the  Catholics,  by  the  Presbyterians  and 
the  fanatics,  by  the  honest  republicans  and  the  army. 
In  Ireland,  the  Catholics  dreaded  the  worst  cruelties 
that  Protestant  bigotry  could  inflict.  Scotland,  almost 
unanimous  in  its  adhesion  to  Presbyterianism,  regarded 
with  horror  the  rise  of  democracy,  and  the  triumph  of 
the  Independents  ;  the  fall  of  the  Stuarts  foreboded  the 
overthrow  of  its  independence  ;  it  loved  liberty,  but  it 
loved  its  nationality  also.  It  feared  the  sovereignty 
of  an  English  parliament,  and  desired  the  restoration  of 
monarchy  as  a  guaranty  against  the  danger  of  being 
treated  as  a  conquered  province.  In  England,  the 
opulent  landholders,  who  swayed  their  ignorant  de- 
pendents, rendered  popular  institutions  impossible ; 
and  too  little  intelligence  had  as  yet  been  diffused 
through  the  mass  of  the  people,  to  make  them  capable 
of  taking  the  lead  in  the  progress  of  civilization.  The 
fruitful  schemes  of  social  and  civil  equality  found  no 
support  but  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  few  who  fostered 
them  ;  and  the  heaviest  clouds  of  discontent  gathered 
sullenly  round  the  nation. 

The  attempt  at  a  counter  revolution  followed.  But 
the  parties  by  which  it  was  made,  though  a  vast 
majority  of  the  three  nations,  were  filled  with  mutual 
antipathies ;  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  had  no  faith  in 
the  Scottish  Presbyterians ;  and  these  in  their  turn 


COUNTER  REVOLUTION   SUPPRESSED   BY   THE   ARMY.  19 

were  full  of  distrust  and  hatred  of  the  English  Cava-  CHAP 

XI. 

liers.  They  feared  each  other  as  much  as  they  feared  «— v^~ 
the  commons.  There  could  therefore  be  no  concert 
of  opposition  ;  the  insurrections,  which,  had  they  been 
made  unitedly,  had  probably  been  successful,  were  not 
simultaneous.  The  Independents  were  united  ;  their 
strength  lay  in  a  small  but  well-disciplined  army  ;  the 
celerity  and  military  genius  of  Cromwell  ensured  to 
them  unity  of  counsels  and  promptness  of  action  ;  they 
conquered  their  adversaries  in  detail ;  and  the  massacre 
of  Drogheda,  the  field  of  Dun  bar,  and  the  victory  of 
Worcester,  destroyed  the  present  hopes  of  the  friends 
of  monarchy. 

The  lustre  of  Cromwell's  victories  ennobled  the 
crimes  of  his  ambition.  When  the  forces  of  the  insur  • 
gents  had  been  beaten  down,  there  remained  but  two 
powers  in  the  state,  the  Long  Parliament  and  the 
army.  To  submit  to  a  military  despotism  was  incon- 
sistent with  the  genius  of  the  people  of  England  ;  and 
yet  the  Long  Parliament,  now  containing  but  a  frac 
tion  of  its  original  members,  could  not  be  recognized  as 
the  rightful  sovereign  of  the  country,  and  possessed 
only  the  shadow  of  executive  power.  Public  confidence 
rested  on  Cromwell  alone.  The  few  true  republicans 
had  no  party  in  the  nation  ;  a  dissolution  of  the  parlia- 
ment would  have  led  to  anarchy ;  a  reconciliation  with 
Charles  II.,  whose  father  had  just  been  executed,  was 
impossible  ;  a  standing  army,  it  was  plausibly  argued, 
required  to  be  balanced  by  a  standing  parliament ;  and 
the  house  of  commons,  the  mother  of  the  common- 
wealth, insisted  on  nursing  the  institutions  which  it 
had  established.  But  the  public  mind  reasoned  dif- 
ferently ;  the  virtual  power  rested  with  the  army ; 
men  dreaded  confusion,  and  sighed  for  peace  ;  and 


20  OLIVER  CROMWELL. 

CHAP,  they  were  pleased  with  the  retributive  justice  that  the 

—  ~  parliament,  which  had  destroyed   the    English  king, 

should  itself  be  subverted  by  one  of  its  members. 

Thus  the  attempt  at  absolute  monarchy  on  the  part 
of  Charles  I.,  yielded  to  a  constitutional,  true  English 
parliament ;  the  control  of  parliament  passed  from  the 
constitutional  royalists  to  the  Presbyterians,  or  repre- 
sentatives of  a  part  of  the  aristocracy  opposed  to  Epis- 
copacy ;  from  the  Presbyterians  to  the  Independents, 
the  enthusiasts,  real  or  pretended,  for  popular  liberty ; 
and  now  that  the  course  of  the  revolution  had  out- 
stripped public  opinion,  a  powerful  reaction  gave  the 
supreme  authority  to  Cromwell.  Sovereignty  had 
escaped  from  the  king  to  the  parliament,  from  the  par- 
liament to  the  commons,  from  the  commons  to  the 
army,  and  from  the  army  to  its  successful  commander. 
Each  revolution  was  a  natural  and  necessary  conse- 
quence of  its  predecessor. 

Cromwell  was  one  of  those  rare  men  whom  even 
his  enemies  cannot  name  without  acknowledging  his 
greatness.  The  farmer  of  Huntingdon,  accustomed 
only  to  rural  occupations,  unnoticed  till  he  was  more 
than  forty  years  old,  engaged  in  no  higher  plots  than 
how  to  improve  the  returns  of  his  farm,  and  fill  his 
orchard  with  choice  fruit,  of  a  sudden  became  the  best 
officer  in  the  British  army,  and  the  greatest  statesman 
of  his  time  ;  subverted  the  English  constitution,  which 
had  been  the  work  of  centuries  ;  held  in  his  own  grasp 
the  liberties  which  the  English  people  had  fixed  in 
their  affections,  and  cast  the  kingdoms  into  a  new 
mould.  Religious  peace,  such  as  England  till  now  has 
never  again  seen,  flourished  under  his  calm  mediation  ; 
justice  found  its  way  even  among  the  remotest  High- 
lands of  Scotland  ;  commerce  filled  the  English  marts 


OLIVER   CROMWELL.  2. 

with  prosperous  activity  under  his  powerful  protection ,  CHAP, 
his  fleets  rode  triumphant  in  the  West  Indies ;  Nova  >— v-L 
Scotia  submitted  to   his  orders  without  a   struggle ; 
the  Dutch  begged  of  him  for  peace  as  for  a   boon  ; 
Louis  XIV.  was  humiliated ;  the  pride  of  Spain  was 
humbled  ;  the  Protestants  of  Piedmont  breathed  their 
prayers  in  security ;  the  glory  of  the  English  name  was 
spread  throughout  the  world. 

And  yot  the  authority  of  Cromwell  marks  but  a 
period  of  iransition.  His  whole  career  was  an  attempt 
to  conciliate  a  union  between  his  power  and  permanent 
public  order  ;  and  the  attempt  was  always  unavailing, 
from  the  inherent  impossibility  growing  out  of  the 
origin  of  his  power.  It  was  derived  from  the  submis- 
sion, not  from  the  will  of  the  people  ;  it  came  by  the 
sword,  not  from  the  nation,  or  from  established  national 
usages.  Cromwell  saw  the  impracticability  of  a  re- 
public, and  offered  no  excuse  for  his  usurpations,  but 
the  right  of  the  strongest  to  restore  tranquillity — the 
old  plea  of  tyrants  and  oppressors  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world.  He  had  made  use  of  the  enthusiasm  of 
liberty  for  his  advancement ;  he  sought  to  sustain  him- 
self by  conciliating  the  most  opposite  sects.  For  the 
republicans  he  had  apologies  ;  "  the  sons  of  Zeruiah, 
the  lawyers,  and  the  men  of  wealth,  are  too  strong  for 
us.  If  we  speak  of  reform,  they  cry  out  that  we  de- 
sign to  destroy  all  propriety."  To  the  witness  of  the 
young  Quaker  against  priestcraft  and  war,  he  replied, 
"  It  is  very  good ;  it  is  truth  ;  if  THOU  and  I  were  but 
an  hour  of  a  day  together,  we  should  be  nearer  one  to 
the  other."  From  the  field  of  Dunbar  he  had  charged 
the  Long  Parliament  "  to  reform  abuses,  and  not  to 
multiply  poor  men  for  the  benefit  of  the  rich."  Present- 
ly he  appealed  to  the  moneyed  men  and  the  lawyers ; 


22  OLIVER  CROMWELL 

CHAP  "  he  alone  could  save  them  from  the  levellers,  men  more 

XI. 

--v-L  ready  to  destroy  than  to  reform."  Did  the  sincere 
levellers,  the  true  commonwealth's  men,  make  their 
way  into  his  presence,  he  assured  them  "  he  preferred 
a  shepherd's  crook  to  the  office  of  protector  ;  he  would 
resign  all  power  so  soon  as  God  should  reveal  his 
definite  will;"  and  then  he  would  invite  them  to  pray. 
"  For,"  said  he  one  day  to  the  poet  Waller,  "  I  must 
talk  to  these  people  in  their  own  style."  Did  the 
passion  for  political  equality  blaze  up  in  the  breasts  of 
the  yeomanry,  who  constituted  his  bravest  troops,  it 
was  checked  by  the  terrors  of  a  military  execution. 
The  Scotch  Presbyterians  could  not  be  cajoled  ;  he 
resolved  to  bow  their  pride  ;  and  did  it  in  the  only  way 
in  which  it  could  be  done,  by  wielding  against  their 
bigotry  the  great  conception  of  the  age,  the  doctrine 
of  Roger  Williams  and  Descartes,  freedom  of  con- 
science. "  Approbation,"  said  he,  as  I  believe,  with 
sincerity  of  conviction,  "  is  an  act  of  conveniency,  not 
of  necessity.  Does  a  man  speak  foolishly  ?  suffer  him 
gladly,  for  ye  are  wise.  Does  he  speak  erroneously  ? 
stop  such  a  man's  mouth  with  sound  words,  that  can- 
not be  gainsaid.  Does  he  speak  truly  ?  rejoice  in  the 
truth." l  To  win  the  royalists,  he  obtained  an  act  of 
amnesty,  a  pledge  of  future  favor  to  such  of  them  as 
would  submit.  He  courted  the  nation  by  exciting  and 
gratifying  national  pride,  by  able  negotiations,  by  vic- 
tory and  conquest.  He  sought  to  enlist  in  his  favor 
the  religious  sympathies  and  enthusiasm  of  the  people, 
by  assuming  for  England  a  guardianship  over  the 
interests  of  Protestant  Christendom,  and  burying  all 
the  mutual  antipathies  of  sects  in  one  common  burning 
hatred  against  the  court  of  Rome. 

'  Thurloe,  L  161 


CROMWELL'S   PARLIAMENTS.  23 

Seldom  was  there  a  less  scrupulous  or  more  gifted  CHAP 
politician  than  Cromwell.  But  he  was  no  longer  a  —  ^  — 
leader  of  a  party.  He  had  no  party.  A  party  cannot 
exist  except  by  the  force  of  common  principles  ;  it  is 
truth,  and  truth  only,  that  of  itself  rallies  men  together. 
Cromwell,  the  oppressor  of  the  Independents,  had 
ceased  to  respect  principles  ;  his  object  was  the 
advancement  of  his  family  ;  his  hold  on  opinion  went 
no  farther  than  the  dread  of  anarchy,  and  the  strong 
desire  for  order.  If  moderate  and  disinterested  men 
consented  to  his  power,  it  was  to  his  power  as  high 
constable,  engaged  to  preserve  the  public  peace.  He 
could  not  confer  on  his  country  a  fixed  form  of  govern- 
ment, for  that  required  a  concert  with  the  national 
affections,  which  he  was  never  able  to  gain.  He  had 
just  notions  of  public  liberty,  and  he  understood  how 
much  the  English  people  are  disposed  to  deify  their 
representatives.  Thrice  did  he  attempt  to  connect 
his  usurpation  with  the  forms  of  representative  govern- 
ment ;  and  always  without  success.  His  first  parlia- 
ment, convened  by  special  writ,  and  mainly  composed 
of  the  members  of  the  party  by  which  he  had  been 
advanced,  represented  the  movement  in  the  English 


mind  which  had  been  the  cause  of  the  revolution.  It  July 
indulged  in  pious  ecstasies,  laid  claim  to  the  special 
enjoyment  of  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  spent 
whole  days  in  exhortations  and  prayers.  But  the 
delirium  of  mysticism  was  not  incompatible  with  clear 
notions  of  policy;  and  amidst  the  hyperboles  of  Oriental 
diction,  they  prepared  to  overthrow  despotic  power  by 
using  the  power  a  despot  had  conceded.  The  objects 
of  this  assembly  were  all  democratic  :  it  labored  to 
effect  a  most  radical  reform  ;  to  codify  English  law,  by 
reducing  the  huge  volumes  of  the  common  law  into  a 


24  CROMWELL'S   PARLIAMENTS. 

CHAP,  few  simple  English  axioms ;  to  abolish  tithes ;  and  to 

—•v^  establish  an  absolute  religious  freedom,  such  as  the 
United  States  now  enjoy.  This  parliament  has  for 
ages  been  the  theme  of  unsparing  ridicule.  Historians, 
with  little  generosity  towards  a  defeated  party,  have 
sided  against  the  levellers ;  and  the  misfortune  of 
failure  in  action  has  doomed  them  to  censure  and  con 
tempt.  Yet  they  only  demanded  what  had  often  been 
promised,  and  what,  on  the  immutable  principles  of 
freedom,  was  right.  They  did  but  remember  the 
truths  which  Cromwell  had  professed,  and  had  forgot- 
ten. Cromwell  feared  their  influence  ;  and,  finding 
the  republican  party  too  honest  to  become  the  dupes 
of  his  ambition,  he  induced  such  members  of  the  par- 
liament as  were  his  creatures  to  resign,  and  scattered 
the  rest  with  his  troops.  The  public  looked  on  with 
much  indifference.  This  parliament,  from  the  mode 
of  its  convocation,  was  unpopular ;  the  royalists,  the 
army,  and  the  Presbyterians,  alike  dreaded  its  activity. 
With  it  expired  the  last  feeble  hope  of  the  republican 
party.  The  successful  soldier,  at  once  and  openly, 
pleading  the  necessity  of  the  moment,  assumed  su- 
preme power,  as  the  highest  peace-officer  in  the  realm. 
Cromwell  next  attempted  an  alliance  with  the 
property  of  the  country.  Affecting  contempt  for  the 
regicide  republicans,  who,  as  his  accomplices  in  crime, 
could  not  forego  his  protection,  he  prepared  to  espouse 
the  cause  of  the  lawyers,  the  clergy,  and  the  moneyed 
interest.  Here,  too,  he  was  equally  unsuccessful. 
The  moneyed  interest  loves  dominion  for  itself ;  it  sub- 

1654   mits  reluctantly  to  dominion ;  and  his  second  parlia- 
toP '   ment,  chosen  on  such  principles  of  reform  as  rejected 

^an5'  tne  rotten  'boroughs,  and,  limiting  the  elective  franchise 
22.    to  men  of  considerable  estate,  made  the  house  a  fair 


CROMWELL'S   PARLIAMENTS.  25 

representation  of  the  wealth  of  the  country,  was  CHAP 
equally  animated  by  a  spirit  of  stubborn  defiance.  The  — >— 
parliament  first  resisted  tKe  decisions  of  the  council  of 
Cromwell  on  the  validity  of  its  elections,  next  vin- 
dicated freedom  of  debate,  and,  at  its  third  sitting, 
called  in  question  the  basis  of  Cromwell's  authority. 
"  ]  Iave  we  cut  down  tyranny  in  one  person,  and  shall 
tho  nation  be  shackled  by  another  ?  "  cried  a  repub- 
lican. "  Hast  thou,  like  Ahab,  killed  arid  taken 
possession  ?  "  exclaimed  a  royalist.  At  the  opening  of 
this  parliament,  Cromwell,  hoping  for  a  majority, 
declared  "  the  meeting  more  precious  to  him  than  life." 
The  majority  favored  the  Presbyterians,  and  secretly 
desired  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  The  protector 
dissolved  them,  saying,  "The  mighty  things  done  among 
us  are  the  revolutions  of  Christ  himself;  to  deny  this 
is  to  speak  against  God."  How  highly  the  public 
mind  was  excited  by  this  abrupt  act  of  tyranny,  is 
evident  from  what  ensued.  The  dissolution  of  the 
parliament  was  followed  by  Penruddoc's  insurrection. 
A  third  and  final  effort  could  not  be  adventured  till 
the  nation  had  been  propitiated  by  naval  successes, 
and  victories  over  Spain  had  excited  and  gratified  the 
pride  of  Englishmen  and  the  zeal  of  Protestants.  "  The 
Red  Cross,"  said  Cromwell's  admirers,  "  rides  on  the 
sea  without  a  rival ;  our  ready  sails  have  made  a  cove- 
nant with  every  wind ;  our  oaks  are  as  secure  on  the 
billows  as  when  they  were  rooted  in  the  forest :  to 
others  the  ocean  is  but  a  road  ;  to  the  English  it  is  a 
dwelling-place." l  The  fleets  of  the  protector  returned 
rich  with  the  spoils  of  Peru  ;  and  there  were  those  who 
joined  in  adulation  ;— 

i  Waller,  Of  a  War  with  Spain,  verses  23— 30. 
VOL.  II.  4 


26  CROMWELL'S   DESIRE   TO   BECOME   KING. 

CHAP.  "  His  conquering  head  has  no  more  room  for  bays  • 

Let  the  rich  ore  forthwith  be  melted  down, 
And  the  state  fixed  by  making  him  a  crown ; 
With  ermine  clad  and  purple,  let  him  hold 
A  royal  sceptre,  made  of  Spanish  gold." 

For  a  moment  the  question  of  a  sovereign  for  Eng- 
land seemed  but  to  relate  to  the  Protector  Cromwell 
and  the  army,  or  King  Cromwell  and  the  army ;  and, 
for  the  last  time,  Cromwell  hoped,  through  a  parliament 
to  reconcile  his  dominion  to  the  English  people,  and 
to  take  a  place  in  the  line  of  English  kings.  For  a 
season  the  majority  was  not  unwilling ;  the  scruples 
of  the  more  honest  among  the  timid  he  overcame  by 
levity.  Our  oath,  he  would  say,  is  not  against  the 
three  letters  that  make  the  word  REX.  "  Royalty 
is  but  a  feather  in  a  man's  cap ;  let  children  enjoy 
their  rattle."1  But  here  his  ambition  was  destined  to  a 
disappointment ;  the  Presbyterians,  ever  his  opponents, 
found  on  this  point  allies  in  many  officers  of  the  army ; 
and  Owen,2  afterwards  elected  president  of  Harvard 
College,  draughted  for  them  a  powerful  and  effectual 
remonstrance.  In  view  of  his  own  elevation,  Crom- 
well had  established  an  upper  house  ;  its  future  mem- 
bers to  be  nominated  by  the  protector,  yet  in  concur- 
rence with  the  peers.  But  the  wealth  of  the  ancient 
hereditary  nobility  continued ;  its  splendor  was  not  yet 
forgotten  ;  the  new  peerage,  exposed  to  the  contrast, 
excited  ridicule  without  giving  strength  to  Cromwell ; 
the  house  of  commons  continually  spurned  at  their 
power,  and  controverted  their  title.  This  last  parlia- 
Feb.  ment  was  also  dissolved.  Unless  Cromwell  could 
exterminate  the  Catholics,  convert  the  inflexible  Pres- 
byterians, chill  the  loyalty  of  the  royalists,  and  corrupt 

1  Ludlow,  22a  a  Ludlow,  224. 


DEATH   OF   CROMWELL.  27 

the  judgment  of  the  republicans,  he  never  could  hope  CHAP, 
the  cheerful  consent  of  the  British  nation  to  the  per-  — v^ 
manence  of  his  government.  He  had  not  even  a  party, 
except  of  personal  friends,  and  his  government  was 
well  understood  to  be  co-extensive  only  with  his  life. 
It  was  essentially  a  state  of  transition.  He  did  not 
connect  himself  with  the  revolution,  for  he  put  himself 
above  it,  and  controlled  it ;  nor  with  the  monarchy,  for 
he  was  an  active  promoter  of  the  execution  of  Charles ; 
nor  with  the  Church,  for  he  subverted  it ;  nor  with  the 
Presbyterians,  for  he  barely  tolerated  their  worship, 
without  gratifying  their  ambition.  He  rested  on  him- 
self;  his  own  genius  and  his  own  personal  resources 
were  the  basis  of  his  power.  Having  subdued  the 
revolution,  there  was  no  firm  obstacle  but  himself  to 
the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts,  and  his  death  was 
necessarily  a  signal  for  new  revolutions. 

The  accession  of  Richard  met  with  no  instant  oppo- 
sition ;  for  the  tranquillity  of  expectation  preceded  the 
impending  change.  Like  his  father,  he  had  no  party 
in  the  nation ;  unlike  his  father,  he  had  no  capacity 
for  public  affairs.  The  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  was 
already  resolved  upon  by  the  people  of  England. 
Richard  convoked  a  parliament  only  to  dissolve  it ;  he 
could  not  control  the  army,  and  he  could  not  govern 
England  without  the  army.  Involved  in  perplexities, 
he  resigned.  His  accession  had  changed  nothing  ;  his 
abdication  changed  nothing ;  content  to  be  the  scoff 
of  the  proud,  he  had  wisely  acted  upon  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  incompetency,  and,  in  the  bosom  of  private 
life,  remote  from  wars,  from  ambition,  from  power,  he 
lived  to  extreme  old  age  in  the  serene  enjoyment  of 
tranquil  affections,  and  of  a  gentle  and  modest  temper 
English  politics  went  forward  in  their  course. 


28  CHARACTER  OF  MONK. 

CHAP.      The  council  of  officers,  the  revival  of  the  "  inter- 

XI. 

-~^  rupted  "  Long  Parliament,  the  intrigues  of  Fleetwood 
and  Desborough,  the  transient  elevation  of  Lambert, 
were  but  a  series  of  unsuccessful  attempts  to  defeat 
the  wishes  of  the  people.  Every  new  effort  was  soon 
a  failure ;  and  each  successive  failure  did  but  expose 
the  enemies  of  royalty  to  increased  indignation  and 
contempt.  In  vain  did  Milton  forebode  that,  "  of  all 
governments,  that  of  a  restored  king  is  the  worst ;  " 
nothing  could  long  delay  the  restoration.  The  fanati- 
cism which  had  made  the  revolution,  had  burnt  out, 
and  was  now  a  spent  volcano.  Among  the  possible 
combinations  of  .human  character,  is  that  of  an  obsti- 
nate and  almost  apathetic  courage,  a  sluggish  tempera- 
ment, a  narrowness  of  mind,  and  yet  a  very  accurate, 
though  a  mean-spirited  judgment,  which,  "  like  a  two- 
foot  rule,"  measures  great  things  as  well  as  small,  not 
rapidly,  but  with  equal  indifference  and  precision. 
Such  a  man  was  Monk,  soon  to  be  famous  in 
American  annals,  from  whose  title,  as  duke  of  Albe- 
marle,  Virginia  named  one  of  her  most  beautiful  coun- 
ties, and  Carolina  her  broadest  bay.  Sir  William 
Coventry,  no  mean  judge  of  men,  esteemed  him  a 
drudge  ;  Lord  Sandwich  sneered  at  him  plainly  as  a 
thick-skulled  fool ;  and  the  more  courteous  Pepys 
paints  him  as  "  a  heavy,  dulJ  man,  who  will  not  hinder 
business,  and  cannot  aH  it."  He  was  precisely  the 
man  demanded  by  the  crisis.  When  Monk  marched 
his  army  from  Scotland  into  England,  he  was  only  the 
instrument  of  the  restoration,  not  its  author.  Origi- 
nally a  soldier  of  fortune  in  the  army  of  the  royalists,  he 
had  deserted  his  party,  served  against  Charles  I.,  and 
readily  offered  to  Cromwell  his  support.  He  had  no 
adequate  conceptions  of  the  nature  or  the  value  of 


THE   RESTORATION.  29 

liberty,  was  no  statesman,  and  was  destitute  of  true  CHAP 

XI 

dignity  oi  character.  Incapable  of  laying  among  the  v— ^ 
wrecks  of  the  English  constitution  the  foundations  of 
a  new  creation  of  civil  liberty,  he  only  took  advantage 
of  circumstances  to  make  his  own  fortune,  and  gratify 
his  vain  passion  for  rank  and  place.  He  cared  nothing 
for  England,  he  cared  only  for  himself;  and  therefore 
he  made  no  terms  for  his  country,  but  only  for  himself. 
He  was  not  the  cause  of  the  restoration  ;  he  did  but 
hold  the  Presbyterians  in  check,  and,  prodigal  of  per- 
juries to  the  last,  he  prevented  the  adoption  of  any 
treaty  or  binding  compact  between  the  returning 
monarch  and  the  people. 

Yet  the  want  of  such  a  compact  could  not  alarm  the 
determined  enthusiasm  of  the  people  of  England.  All 
classes  sighed  for  the  restoration  of  monarchy,  as  the 
only  effectual  guaranty  of  peace.  The  Presbyterians, 
like  repentant  sinners  at  the  confessional,  hoping  to 
gain  favor  by  an  early  and  effectual  union  with  the 
royalists,  contented  themselves  with  a  vague  belief  that 
the  martyrdoms  of  Dunbar  would  never  be  forgotten ; 
misfortunes  and  the  fate  of  Charles  I.  were  taken  as 
sureties  that  Charles  II.  had  learned  moderation  in  the 
school  of  exile  and  sorrow  ;  and  his  return  could  have 
nothing  humiliating  for  the  English  people,  for  it  was 
the  nation  itself  that  recalled  its  sovereign.  Every 
party  that  had  opposed  the  dynasty  of  the  Stuarts,  had 
failed  in  the  attempt  to  give  England  a  government ; 
the  constitutional  royalists,  the  Presbyterians,  the  Inde- 
pendents, the  Long  Parliament,  the  army,  had  all  in 
their  turn  been  unsuccessful ;  the  English,  preserving 
a  latent  zeal  for  their  ancient  liberties,  were  yet  at  the 
time  inflamed  and  carried  away  with  a  passionate  de- 
sire of  their  ancient  king.  The  Long  Parliament  is 


30  THE   RESTORATION. 

CHAP,  reassembled;  the  Presbyterians,  expelled  before  the 
~~v^  trial  of  Charles,  resume  their  seats ;  and  the  parlia- 
ment is  dissolved,  to  be  succeeded  by  a  new  assembly. 
The  king's  return  is  at  hand.  They  who  had  been  its 
latest  advocates,  now  endeavor  to  throw  oblivion  on 
their  hesitancy  by  the  excess  of  loyalty  ;  men  vie  with 
one  another  in  the  display  of  zeal  for  the  restoration  , 
no  one  is  disposed  to  gain  the  certain  ill-will  of  the 
monarch  by  proposing  conditions  which  might  not  be 
seconded  ;  men  forget  their  country  in  their  zeal  for 
the  king ;  they  forget  liberty  in  their  eagerness  to 
advance  their  fortunes ;  a  vague  proclamation  on  the 
part  of  Charles  II.,  promising  a  general  amnesty,  fidel- 
ity to  the  Protestant  religion,  regard  for  tender  con- 
sciences, and  respect  for  the  English  laws,  was  the 
only  pledge  from  the  sovereign.  And  now,  after 
twenty  years  of  storms,  the  light  of  peace  dawns  in  the 
horizon.  All  England  was  in  ecstasy.  Groups  of 
royalists  gathered  round  buckets  of  wine  in  the  streets, 
and  drank  the  king's  health  on  their  knees.  The  bells 
in  every  steeple  rung  merry  peals  ;  the  bonfires  round 
London  were  so  numerous  and  so  brilliant,  that  the 
city  seemed  encircled  with  a  halo  ; l  and  under  a  clear 
sky,  with  a  favoring  wind,  the  path  of  the  exiled 
monarch  homewards  to  the  kingdom  of  his  fathers,  is 
serene  and  unruffled  ;  as  he  landed  on  the  soil  of  Eng- 
IG60.  land,  be  was  received  by  infinite  crowds  with  all 
imaginable  love.  The  shouting  and  general  joy  were 
past  imagination.2  On  the  journey  from  Dover  to 
London,  the  hillocks  all  the  way  were  covered  with 
people ;  the  trees  were  filled  ; 3  and  such  was  the 
prodigality  of  flowers  from  maidens,  such  the  acclama- 

1  Pepys,  i.  15.  18.         2  Pepys.         3  Gumble's  Life  of  Me  nek,  38d. 


TRIUMPH  OF  ROYALTY.  31 

lions  from  throngs  of  men,  the  whole  kugdom  seemed  CHAP 
gathered  along  the  road-sides.     The  companies  of  the  - — - 
city  welcomed  the  king  with  loud  thanks  to  God  for  his  ^60 
presence ; 1   and   he    advanced    to    Whitehall  through     20. 
serried  ranks  of  admiring  citizens.     All  hearts  were 
open  ;  and  on  the  evening  of  his  arrival  in  the  capital 
of  his  kingdom,  he  employed  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
time  to  debauch  a  beautiful  woman  of  nineteen,  the 
wife  of  one  of  his  subjects. 

In  the  midst  of  the  universal  gladness,  the  triumph 
of  the  royalist  party  was  undisputed.  The  arms  of  the 
commonwealth,  and  the  emblems  of  republicanism, 
were  defaced  and  burned  with  every  expression  of 
hatred  and  scorn.  The  democratic  party,  which 
Cromwell  had  subdued,  was  now  politically  extinct ; 
its  adherents  sought  obscurity  among  the  crowd,  while 
its  leaders  were  obliged  to  hide  themselves  from  the 
feverish  excitement  of  popular  anger.  The  melancholic 
inflexibility  and  the  self-denying  austerity  of  repub- 
licanism were  out  of  vogue  ;  levity  and  licentiousness 
now  came  in  fashion.  Every  party  that  had  opposed 
royalty,  had,  in  the  eagerness  of  political  strife,  failed 
to  establish  a  government  on  a  permanent  basis.  Eng- 
land remembered,  that,  under  its  monarchs,  it  had 
elected  parliaments,  enjoyed  the  trial  by  jury,  and 
prospered  in  affluent  tranquillity.  Except  in  New 
England,  royalty  was  now  alone  in  favor.  The  re- 
publican party  in  England  was  fallen  into  extreme 
unpopularity ;  the  democratic  revolution  had  been  an 
entire  failure,  but  that,  with  all  its  faults,  its  wildncss, 
and  its  extravagance,  it  set  in  motion  the  valuable 
ideas  of  popular  liberty  which  the  experience  of  hap- 

1  Clarendon,  iii.  772 


32  CHARACTER  AND  DEATH  OF  HUGH  PETERS. 

CHAP,  pier  ages  was  to  devise  ways  of  introducing  into  the 
^~~  political  life  of  the  nation.  We  shall  presently  see  that 
the  excessive  loyalty  of  the  moment,  too  precipitate  in 
the  restoration,  doomed  the  country  to  an  arduous  strug- 
gle, and  the  necessity  of  a  new  revolution. 
1 660.  The  immediate  effects  of  the  restoration  were  sad- 
dened by  the  bitterness  of  revenge.  All  the  regicides 
that  were  seized  would  have  perished,  but  for  Charles 
II.,  whom  good  nature  led  at  last  to  exclaim,  "  I  am 
tired  of  hanging,  except  for  new  offences."  All  haste 
was,  however,  made  to  despatch,  at  least,  half  a  score, 
as  if  to  appease  the  shade  of  Charles  I.  ;  and  among 
the  selected  victims  was  Hugh  Peters,  once  the  minis- 
ter of  Salem,  the  father-in-law  of  the  younger  Win- 
throp  ; l  one  whom  Roger  Williams  honored  and  loved, 
and  whom  Milton  is  supposed  to  include  among 

u  Men  whose  life,  learning,  faith,  and  pure  intent, 
Would  have  been  held  in  high  esteem  with  Paul." 

As  a  preacher,  his  homely  energy  resembled  the  elo- 
quence of  Latimer  and  the  earlier  divines ;  in  Salem 
he  won  general  affection ;  he  was  ever  zealous  to 
advance  the  interests  and  quicken  the  industry  of  New 
England,  and  had  assisted  in  founding  the  earliest 
college.  His  was  the  fanaticism  of  an  ill-balanced 
mind,  mastered  by  great  ideas,  which  it  imperfectly 
comprehends ;  and  therefore  he  repelled  monarchy  and 
Episcopacy  with  excited  passion.  Though  he  was  not 
himself  a  regicide,  his  zeal  made  him  virtually  an 
accomplice,  by  his  influence  over  others.2  He  could 
not  consider  consequences,  and  zeal  overwhelmed 

1  R.  WiLiams  to   J.  Winthrop,    ly  I  did  ever,  from  my  soul,  honor 
Jr.,  in  Knowles,  310.    «  You  were    and  love  them." 
the  eon  ot  two  nobie  fathers.    Sure-        3  Evelyn's  Memoirs,  ii.  3 


CHARACTER  AND   DEATH   OF  HUGH  PETERS.  33 

his  judgment.  Nor  was  he  entirely  free  from  that  CHAP 
bigotry  which  refuses  to  extend  the  rights  of  human-  ^~~ 
ity  beyond  its  own  altars ; 1  he  could  thank  God  for  the 
massacres  of  Cromwell  in  Ireland.2  And  yet  benevo- 
lence was  deeply  fixed  in  his  heart ;  he  ever  advocated 
he  rights  of  the  feeble,  and  pleaded  for  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  poor.  Of  his  whole  career  it  was  said,  that 
"-many  godly  in  New  England  dared  not  condemn 
what  Hugh  Peters  had  done."3  His  arraignment,  his 
trial,  and  his  execution,  were  scenes  of  wanton  injus- 
tice. He  was  allowed  no  counsel ;  and,  indeed,  his 
death  had  been  resolved  upon  beforehand,  though  even 
false  witnesses  did  not  substantiate  the  specific  charges 
urged  against  him.  His  last  thoughts  reverted  to 
Massachusetts.  "  Go  home  to  New  England,  and 
trust  God  the"re ; "  it  was  his  final  counsel  to  his 
daughter.  At  the  gallows,  he  was  compelled  to  wait  l^GO 
while  the  body  of  his  friend  Cooke,  who  had  just  been  14. 
hanged,  was  cut  down  and  quartered  before  his  eyes. 
"  How  like  you  this  ?  "  cried  the  executioner,  rubbing 
his  bloody  hands.  "  I  thank  God,"  replied  the  martyr, 
"  I  am  not  terrified  at  it ;  you  may  do  your  worst." 
To  his  friends  he  said,  "  Weep  not  for  me  ;  my  heart  is 
full  of  comfort ; "  and  he  smiled  as  he  made  himself 
ready  to  leave  the  world.  Even  death  could  not  save 
him  from  his  enemies  ;  the  bias  of  party  corrupts  the 
judgment,  and  cruelty  justified  itself  by  defaming  its 
victim.4  So  perished  a  freeman  of  Massachusetts ; 

1  Trial  of  Anne  Hutchinson.  a  foolish  calumny,  reflecting   dis- 

2  Whitelocke,  428.     "  Drogheda  credit  only  on  those  who  could  prop- 
is  taken,  3552  of  the  enemy  slain,  agate  it.      Charles    I.  drank  wine 
Ashton    killed;    none    spared.      I  before   his   execution,  for  fear  of 
came  now  from  giving  thanks  in  the  trembling.      South  is   extravagant, 
great  church."  Burnet,  i.  226,   could  have   heard 

3  Crown,  in  Chalmers,  264.  only  the  accounts  of  his  enemies, 

4  The  story  that  he  died  drunk,  is  which  were  caricatures. 

VOL.    II.  5 


34  REGICIDES  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

CHAP  the  first  who  lost  his  life  for  opposition  to  monarchy 

— ^~  The  blood  of  Massachusetts  was  destined  to  flow  freel) 

v    on  the  field  of  battle  for  the  same  cause ;  the  streams 

were  first  opened  beneath  the  gallows.1 
1660  The  regicides,  who  had  at  nearly  the  same  time  been 
condemned  to  death,  did  not  abate  their  confidence  in 
their  cause.  Alone  against  a  nation,  pride  of  character 
blended  with  religious  fervor  and  political  enthusiasm 
Death  under  the  horrid  forms  which  a  barbarous  age 
had  devised,  and  a  barbarous  jurisprudence  still  toler- 
ated, they  could  meet  with  serenity,  or  with  exultation. 
The  voice  within  their  breasts  still  approved  what  they 
had  done  ;  a  better  world  seemed  opening  to  receive 
them ;  and,  as  they  ascended  the  scaffold,  their  un- 
daunted composure  and  lofty  resignation  seemed  to 
call  on  earth  and  heaven  to  witness  how  unjustly  they 
suffered. 

But  it  was  not  enough  to  punish  the  living ;  ven- 
geance invaded  the  tombs.  The  corpses  of  Cromwell, 
Bradshaw,  and  Ireton,  were,  by  the  order  of  both 
houses  of  parliament,  and  with  the  approbation  of  the 
king,  disinterred,  dragged  on  hurdles  to  Tyburn,  and 
regularly  hanged  at  the  three  corners  of  the  gallows. 
In  the  evening,  the  same  bodies  were  cut  down  and 
beheaded,  amidst  the  exulting  merriment  of  the  Cava- 
liers. Such  is  revenge  ! 

Of  the  judges  of  King  Charjes  I.,  three  escaped  to 
America.  Edward  Whalley,  who  had  first  won  laurels 
in  the  field  of  Naseby,  had  ever  enjoyed  the  confidence 
of  Cromwell,  and  remained  to  the  last  an  enemy  to  the 

i  See  a  favorable  view  Of  Peters  Hist.  Coll.  vi.  250—254.     London 

in  Upham's  Second  Century  Lee-  Monthly  Repository,  xiv.  525  and 

ture   at  Salem,  13 — 27,  and  Post-  602.      Opposite  opinions  in  nearly 

script     So,  too,  Felt's   Annals  of  all  the  royalist  writers 
Salem,  132—151.    Bentley,  in  Mas*. 


REGICIDES   IN   NEW  ENGLAND.  3b 

Stuarts,  and  a  friend  to  the  interests  of  the  Independ-  CH4P 
ents, — and  William  Goffe,  a  firm  friend  to  the  family  — v-L 
of  Cromwell,1  a  good  soldier,  and  an  ardent  partisan,  1660 
but  ignorant  of  the  true  principles  of  freedom, — arrived    -^ty 
in  Boston,  where  Endicot,  the  governor,  received  them 
with  courtesy.     For  nearly  a  year,  they  resided  unmo- 
lested   within   the   limits   of    Massachusetts,    holding 
meetings  in   every  house,   where   they  preached  and 
prayed,  and  gained  universal  applause.      When  war- 
rants arrived  from  England  for  their  apprehension,  they  1661 
fled  across  the  country  to  New  Haven,  where  it  was 
esteemed  a  crime  against  God  to  bewray  the  wanderer 
or  give  up  the  outcast.     Yet  such  diligent  search  was 
made  for  them,  that  they  never  were  in  security.     For 
a  time  they  removed  in  secrecy  from  house  to  house ; 
sometimes  concealed  themselves  in  a  mill,  sometimes  in 
clefts  of  the  rocks  by  the  seaside  ;  and  for  weeks  to-    June 
gether,  and  even  for  months,  they  dwelt  in  a  cave  in     to 
the    forest.       Great   rewards   were   offered   for   their 
apprehension  ;  Indians  as  well  as  English  were  urged 
to  scour  the  woods  in  quest  of  their  hiding-place,  as 
men  hunt  for  the  holes  of  foxes.     When  the  zeal  of  the 
search  was  nearly  over,  they  retired  to  a  little  village 
on  the  Sound  ;  till  at  last  they  escaped  by  night  to  an 
appointed  place  of  refuge  in  Hadley,  and  the  solitudes 
of  the   most  beautiful  valley  of  New  England  gave 
shelter  to  their  wearisome  and  repining  age.2 

John  Dixwell  was  more  fortunate.     He  was  able  to 
live  undiscovered,  and,  changing  his  name,  was  ab- 

1  Burton's  Diary,  i.  361.  may  be  found  in  the  Dutch  records. 

2  Stiles,  in  c.  iii.  of  his  History  What  need  of  referring  to  Hutch, 
of  Three  of  the  Judges  of  Charles  Hist.  vol.  i.,  to  the  papers  in  Hutch. 
I.,  has  collected  the  materials   on  Coll.,    to    Crown's    deposition,    in 
this  subject.    Papers  relating  to  it  Chalmers,  263,  264  ? 


36  CHARACTER  OF  SIR  HENRY   VANE. 

CHAP,  sorbed   among  the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven.     He 

XI. 

-~*^-  married,  and  lived  peacefully  and  happily.  The  His- 
tory of  the  World,  which  Raleigh  had  written  in  im- 
prisonment, with  the  sentence  of  death  hanging  over 
his  head,  was  the  favorite  study  of  the  man  whom  the 
laws  of  England  had  condemned  to  the  gallows ;  and 
he  ever  retained  a  firm  belief  that  the  spirit  of  English 
liberty  would  demand  a  new  revolution,  which  was 
achieved  in  England  a  few  months  before  his  end,  and 
of  which  the  earliest  rumors  may  have  reached  his 
death-bed.1 

Three  of  the  regicides,  who  had  escaped  to  Holland, 
found  themselves,  in  the  territory  of  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent state,2  less  securely  sheltered  than  their  col- 
leagues in  the  secret  places  of  a  dependent  colony. 
1662  They  were  apprehended  in  Holland,  surrendered  bv 
19.  the  states,  and  executed  in  England. 

Retributive  justice,  thought  many,  required  the 
execution  of  regicides.  One  victim  was  selected  for 
his  genius  and  integrity ;  such  was  the  terror  inspired 
by  their  influence.  Now  that  all  England  was  carried 
away  with  eagerness  for  monarchy,  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
the  former  governor  of  Massachusetts,  the  benefactor 
of  Rhode  Island,  the  ever-faithful  friend  of  New  Eng- 
land, adhered  with  undaunted  firmness  to  "  the  glorious 
cause  "  of  popular  liberty  ;  and,  shunned  by  every  man 
who  courted  the  returning  monarch,  he  became  noted 
for  the  most  "catholic"  unpopularity.3  He  fell  from 
the  affections  of  the  English  people,  when  the  English 
people  fell  from  the  jealous  care  of  their  liberties.  He 

1  Dixwell  died  March  18,  1689,     150,  4to.  ed.,  is  very  unfavorable  to 
aged  81.  De  Witt. 

a  The  story  in  Pepys,  iL   149,        3  Maidston  to  Winthrop. 


CHARACTER  OF   SIR  HENRY   VANE.  37 

had  ever  been  incorrupt  and  disinterested,  merciful  CHAP 
and  liberal.  When  Unitarianism  was  persecuted,  not  ^-v—. 
as  a  sect,  but  as  a  blasphemy,  Vane  interceded  for  its 
advocate  ;  l  he  pleaded  for  the  liberty  of  Quakers 
imprisoned  for  their  opinions  ;  2  as  a  legislator,  he 
demanded  justice  in  behalf  of  the  Roman  Catholics  ; 
he  resisted  the  sale  of  Penruddoc's  men  into  slavery, 
as  an  aggression  on  the  rights  of  man.  The  immense 
emoluments  of  his  office  as  treasurer  of  the  navy  he 
voluntaiily  resigned.3  When  the  Presbyterians,  though 
his  adversaries,  were  forcibly  excluded  from  the  house 
of  commons,  he  also  absented  himself.4  When  the 
monarchy  was  overthrown,  and  a  commonwealth  at- 
tempted, Vane  reluctantly  filled  a  seat  in  the  council  ; 
and,  resuming  his  place  as  a  legislator,  amidst  the 
floating  wrecks  of  the  English  constitution,  he  clung  to 
the  existing  parliament  as  to  the  only  fragment  on 
which  it  was  possible  to  rescue  English  liberty.  His 
energy  gave  to  the  English  navy  its  efficient  organiza- 
tion ;  if  England  could  cope  with  Holland  on  the  sea, 
the  glory  of  preparation  is  Vane's.  His  labors  in  that 
remnant  of  a  parliament  were  immediately  turned  to 
the  purification  of  liberty  in  its  sources  ;  and  he  is 
believed  to  have  anticipated  every  great  principle  of 
the  modern  reform  bill.  He  steadily  resisted  the 
usurpation  of  Cromwell  ;  as  he  had  a  right  to  esteem 
the  sorrows  of  his  country  his  private  sorrows,  he 
declared  it  "no  small  grief,  that  the  evil  and  wretched 
principles  of  absolute  monarchy  should  be  revived  by 
men  professing  godliness;"  and  Cromwell,  unable  to 
intimidate  him,  confined  him  to  Carisbrook  Castle. 


1  Godwin,  iii.  511.  3  Macauley,  v.  99. 

9  Sewell,  191.  4  See  Vane's  Speeches,  in  Burton 


38  TRIAL   OF   SIR   HENRY   VANE. 

CHAP   Both   Cromwell  and   Vane   were   unsuccessful  states- 

men  ;    the  first  desired  to  secure  the  government  of 

England  to  his  family  ;  the  other,  to  vindicate  it  fof 
the  people. 

^ne  convention  parliament  had  excepted  Vane  from 
the  indemnity,  on  the  king's  promise  that  he  should  not 
suffer  death.  It  was  now  resolved  to  bring  him  to 
trial ;  and  he  turned  his  trial  into  a  triumph.  Though 
"  before  supposed  to  be  a  timorous  man," l  he  appeared 
before  his  judges  with  animated  fearlessness.  Instead 
of  offering  apologies  for  his  career,  he  denied  the 
imputation  of  treason  with  settled  scorn,  defended  the 
right  of  Englishmen  to  be  governed  by  successive 
representatives,  and  took  glory  to  himself  for  actions 
which  promoted  the  good  of  England,  and  were  sanc- 
tioned by  parliament  as  the  virtual  sovereign  of  the 
realm.  He  spoke  not  for  his  life  and  estate,  but  for 
the  honor  of  the  martyrs  to  liberty  that  were  in  their 
graves,  for  the  liberties  of  England,  for  the  interest 
"  of  all  posterity  in  time  to  come."  He  had  asked  for 
counsel.  "  Who,"  cried  the  solicitor,  "  will  dare  to 
speak  for  you,  unless  you  can  call  down  from  the  gib- 
bet the  heads  of  your  fellow-traitors  ?  "  "  I  stand 
single,"  said  Vane ;  "  yet,  being  thus  left  alone,  I  am 
not  afraid,  in  this  great  presence,  to  bear  my  witness  to 
the  glorious  cause,  nor  to  seal  it  with  my  blood."  Such 
true  magnanimity  stimulated  the  vengeance  of  his 
enemies ;  "  they  clamored  for  his  life."  "  Certain- 
ly," wrote  the  king,  "  Sir  Henry  Vane  is  too  dangerous 
a  man  to  let  live,  if  we  can  honestly* put  him  out  of  the 
way."2  It  was  found  he  could  not  honestly  be  put 
out  of  the  way  ;  but  still,  the  solicitor  urged,  "  he  must 

1  Calamy's  Abridgment,  99,  100.     a  very  fearful  man."    Hume,  c.  IxiiL 
Bui-net,  i.  228.    "  He  was  naturally        2  The  letter,  in  Hallara,  ii.  443. 


SIR  HENRY    VANE  IN   PRISON.  39 

be  made  a  sacrifice."     "  We  know  what  to  do  with  CHAP. 
him,"  said  the  king's  counsel.1 

The  day  before  his  execution,  his  friends  were  admit-  JT662 

J  June, 

ted  to  his  prison  ;  and  he  cheered  their  drooping  spirits 

by  his  own  serene  intrepidity,  reasoning  calmly  on 
death  and  immortality.  He  reviewed  his  political 
career,  from  the  day  when  he  defended  Anne  Hutchin- 
son,  to  his  last  struggle  for  English  liberties,  and  could 
say,  "  I  have  not  the  least  recoil  in  my  heart  as  to 
mattei  or  manner  of  what  I  have  done."  A  friend 
.»poke  jf  prayer,  that  for  the  present  the  cup  of  death 
might  be  averted.  "  Why  should  we  fear  death  ?  " 
answered  Vane  ;  "  I  find  it  rather  shrinks  from  me, 
than  I  from  it."  His  children  gathered  round  him, 
and  he  stooped  to  embrace  them,  mingling  consola- 
tion with  kisses.  "  The  Lord  will  be  a  better  father 
to  you."  "  Be  not  you  troubled,  for  I  am  going 
home  to  my  Father."  And  his  farewell  counsel  was, 
"  Suffer  any  thing  from  men  rather  than  sin  against 
God."  When  his  family  had  withdrawn,  he  declared 
his  life  to  be  willingly  offered  to  confirm  the  wavering, 
and  convince  the  ignorant.  The  cause  of  popular 
liberty  still  seemed  to  him  a  glorious  cause.  "  I  leave 
my  life  as  a  seal  to  the  justness  of  that  quarrel.  Ten 
thousand  deaths,  rather  than  defile  the  chastity  of  my 
conscience ;  nor  would  I,  for  ten  thousand  worlds, 
resign  the  peace  and  satisfaction  I  have  in  my  heart." 
The  plebeian  Hugh  Peters  had  been  hanged ;  Sir 
Henry  Vane  was  to  suffer  on  the  b^ock.  The  same 
cheerful  resignation  animated  him  on  the  day  of  his 
execution.  As  the  procession  moved  through  the 
streets,  men  from  the  windows  and  tops  of  house? 

i  Trial  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  73.  55. 


40  EXECUTION  OF  SIR  HENRY    VANE. 

CHAP,  expressed  their  sorrow,  pouring  out  prayers  for  him  as 
~^v~  he  passed  by ;  and  the  people  shouted  aloud,  "  God  go 
32<  with  you."  Arrived  on  the  scaffold,  he  was  observable 
14.  above  all  others  by  the  intrepidity  of  his  demeanor. 
Surveying  the  vast  surrounding  multitude  with  compo- 
sure, he  addressed  them,  and  sought  to  awaken  in  their 
souls  the  love  of  English  liberty.  His  voice  was  over- 
powered with  trumpets ;  finding  he  could  not  bear  an 
audible  testimony  to  his  principles,  he  was  not  in  the 
least  disconcerted  by  the  rudeness,  but,  in  the  serenity 
of  his  manner,  continued  to  show  with  what  calmness 
an  honest  patriot  could  die.  With  unbroken  trust  in 
Providence,  he  believed  in  the  progress  of  civilization ; 
and  while  he  reminded  those  around  him,  that  "  he  had 
foretold  the  dark  clouds  which  were  coming  thicker 
and  thicker  for  a  season,"  it  was  still  "most  clear  to  the 
eye  of  his  faith,"  that  a  better  day  would  dawn  in  the 
clouds.  "Blessed  be  God,"  exclaimed  he,  as  he  bared 
his  neck  for  the  axe,  "  I  have  kept  a  conscience  void  of 
offence  to  this  day,  and  have  not  deserted  the  righteous 
cause  for  which  I  suffer."  That  righteous  cause  was 
democratic  liberty ;  in  the  history  of  the  world,  he  was 
the  first  martyr  to  the  principle  of  the  paramount  power 
of  the  people ;  and,  as  he  had  predicted,  "  his  blood 
gained  a  voice  to  speak  his  innocence."  The  manner 
of  his  death  was  the  admiration  of  his  times. 

Puritanism,  with  the  sects  to  which  it  gave  birth, 
ceased  to  sway  the  destinies  of  England.  The  army 
of  Cromwell  had  displayed  its  powrer  in  the  field 
Milton,  having  shown  the  eloquence  it  could  inspire, 
still  lived  to  illustrate  what  poetry  it  could  create,  in 
works  that  are  counted  among  the  noblest  productions 
of  the  human  mind ;  Vane  proved  how  fearlessly  it 
could  bear  testimony  for  liberty  in  the  face  of  death , 


SUPREMACY  Of  PARLIAMENT.  41 

New  England  is  the  monument  of  its  power  to  estab-  CHAP 
lish  free  states.     The  ancient  institutions  of  England  *— v^. 
would  not  yield  to  new  popular  establishments  ;  but 
the  bloom  of  immortality  belongs  to  the  example  of 
Vane,  to  the  poetry  of  Milton,  and,  let  us  hope,  to  the 
institutions  of  New  England. 

To  New  England,  the  revolutions  in  the  mother 
country  were  not  indifferent ;  the  American  colonies 
attracted  the  notice  of  the  courts  of  justice  in  West- 
minster Hall.  They  were  held,  alike  by  the  nature  of 
the  English  constitution,  and  the  principles  of  the 
common  law,  to  be  subordinate  to  the  English  parlia- 
ment, and  bound  by  its  acts,  whenever  they  were 
specially  named  in  a  statute,  or  were  clearly  embraced 
within  its  provisions.  An  issue  was  thus  made  be- 
tween Massachusetts  and  England,  for  that  colony  had, 
as  we  have  seen,  refused  to  be  subject  to  the  laws  of 
parliament,  and  had  remonstrated  against  such  subjec- 
tion, as  "  the  loss  of  English  liberty."  The  Long 
Parliament  had  conceded  the  justice  of  the  remon- 
strance. The  judges,  on  the  restoration,  decreed  other- 
wise, and  asserted  the  legislative  supremacy  of  parlia- 
ment over  the  colonies  without  restriction.  Such  .was 
the  established  common  law  of  England.1 

Immediately  on  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  the  1660 
convention  parliament2  granted  to  the  monarch  a  sub- 
sidy of  twelve  pence  in  the  pound,  that  is,  of  five  per 
cent.,  on  all  merchandise  exported  from,  or  imported 
into,  the  kingdom  of  England,  or  "  any  of  his  majesty's 
dominions  thereto  belonging." 3  Doubts  arising,  not 

1  Freeman's  Reports,  175 ;  Mod-  2  12  Charles  II.  c.  iv. 

ern  Reports,  iii.  159, 160;  Vaughan's  3  Same    expression  in   2  Anne, 

Reports,    170.   400 ;    Modern    Re-  c.  ix. ;  3  Anne,   c.  v. ;   and  in  21 

ports,  iv.  225;   Blackstone's  Com-  George  II.  c.  ii.     The  expression 

mentaries,  i.  106 — 109.  does  not  include  the  colonies. 

VOL.  II.  6 


42  THE  NAVIGATION  ACT  OF  CHARLES   K 

CHAP,  whether  the  power  of  parliament  was  co-extensive  witn 

^>~~  the  English  empire,  but  what  territories  the  terms  of 

i  660   the  act  included,  they  were  interpreted  to  exclude  "  the 

dominions  not  of  the  crown  of  England." '     The  tax 

was,  also,   never  levied  in   the   colonies  ;  nor  was  it 

understood  that  the  colonies  were  bound  by  a  statute, 

unless  they  were  expressly  named.2 

That  distinctness  was  not  wanting,  when  it  was 
required  by  the  interests  of  English  merchants.  The 
Navigation  Act  of  the  commonwealth  had  not  been 
designed  to  trammel  the  commerce  of  the  colonies , 
the  convention  parliament,  the  same  body  which  be- 
trayed the  liberties  of  England,  by  restoring  the  Stuarts 
without  conditions,  now,  by  the  most  memorable  statute3 
in  the  English  maritime  code,  connected  in  one  act  the 
protection  of  English  shipping,  and  a  monopoly  to  the 
English  merchant  of  the  trade  with  the  colonies.  Ir 
the  reign  of  Richard  II.,4  the  commerce  of  English 
ports  had  been  secured  to  English  shipping  :  the  act 
of  navigation  of  1651  had  done  no  more;  and  against 
it  the  colonists  made  no  serious  objection.  The  present 
act  renewed  the  same  provisions,  and  further  avowed 
the  design  of  sacrificing  the  natural  rights  of  the  colo- 
nists to  English  interests.  "  No  merchandise  shall  be 
imported  into  the  plantations  but  in  English  vessels, 
navigated  by  Englishmen,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture." 
The  harbors  of  the  colonies  were  shut  against  the 
Dutch,  and  every  foreign  vessel. — America,  as  the 
asylum  of  the  oppressed,  invited  emigrants  from  the 
most  varied  climes.  It  was  now  enacted,  that  none 
but  native  or  naturalized  subjects  should  become  a  mer- 

1  Vatighan's  Reports,  170.    Com-  2  Blackstone,  i.  107,108;  Chittv 

pare  Tyrwhit  and  Tyndale's  Digest,  on  Prerogative,  33. 

xiii.— xv.     Chalmers,  p.  241,  is  not  3  12  Charles  II.  c.  xviii. 

sustained   n  his  inference  4  5  Richard  II  c.  iii 


COLONIAL  MONOPOLY.  43 

chant  or  factor  in  any  English  settlement;   excluding  CHAP 
the  colonists  from  the  benefits  of  a  foreign  competition.  ~~^*> 

American  industry  produced  articles  for  exportation  ;  166° 
but  these  articles  were  of  two  kinds.  Some  were 
produced  in  quantities  only  in  America,  and  would  not 
compete  in  the  English  market  with  English  produc- 
tions. These  were  enumerated,  and  it  was  declared 
that  none  of  them,  that  is,  no  sugar,  tobacco,  ginger, 
indigo,  cotton,  fustic,  dyeing  woods,  shall  be  transported 
to  any  other  country  than  those  belonging  to  the  crown 
of  England,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  ;  and  as  new 
articles  of  industry  of  this  class  grew  up  in  America, 
they  were  added  to  the  list.  But  such  other  commodi- 
ties as  the  English  merchant  might  not  find  convenient 
to  buy,  the  American  planter  might  ship  to  foreign 
markets  ;  the  farther  off  the  better  ; l  because  they 
would  thus  interfere  less  with  the  trades  which  were 
carried  on  in  England.  The  colonists  were,  therefore, 
by  a  clause  in  the  navigation  act,  confined  to  ports 
south  of  Cape  Finisterre. 

Hardly  had  time  enough  elapsed  for  a  voyage  or  two 
across  the  Atlantic,  before  it  was  found  that  tne  Eng- 
lish merchant  might  derive  still  further  advantages  at 
the  cost  of  the  colonists,  by  the  imposition  of  still  fur- 
ther restraints.  A  new  law2  prohibited  the  importa-  1603 
tion  of  European  commodities  into  the  colonies,  except 
in  English  ships  from  England,  to  the  end  that  Eng- 
land might  be  made  the  staple,  not  only  of  colonial 
productions,  but  of  colonial  supplies.  Thus  the  colo- 
nists were  compelled  to  buy  in  England,  not  only  all 
English  manufactures,  but  every  thing  else  that  they 
might  need  from  any  soil  but  their  own. 

1  Compare  Adam  Smith,  b.  iv.  c.  vii.  p.  iii.  a  15  Car.  IT.  c.  vii 


44  COLONIAL  MONOPOLY. 

CHAP.  The  activity  of  the  shipping  of  New  England,  which 
— v-i~  should  only  have  excited  admiration,  excited  envy  in 
the  minds  of  the  English  merchants.  The  produce  of 
the  plantations  of  the  southern  colonies  was  brought 
to  New  England,  as  a  result  of  the  little  colonial 
exchanges.  To  the  extravagant  fears  of  mercantile 
avarice,  New  England  was  become  a  staple.1  Parlia- 
1672  ment,2  therefore,  resolved  to  exclude  New  England 
merchants  from  competing  with  the  English,  in  the 
markets  of  the  southern  plantations ;  the  liberty  of 
free  traffic  between  the  colonies  was  accordingly 
taken  away  ;  and  any  of  the  enumerated  commodities 
exported  from  one  .colony  to  another,  were  subjected 
to  a  duty  equivalent  to  the  duty  on  the  consumption 
of  these  commodities  in  England. 

By  degrees,  the  avarice  of  English  shopkeepers 
became  bolder ;  and  America  was  forbidden,  by  act  of 
parliament,  not  merely  to  manufacture  those  articles 
which  might  compete  with  the  English  in  foreign  mar- 
kets, but  even  to  supply  herself,  by  her  own  industry, 
with  those  articles  which  her  position  enabled  her  to 
manufacture  with  success  for  her  own  wants.3 

Thus  was  the  policy  of  Great  Britain,  with  respect 
to  her  colonies,  a  system  of  monopoly,  adopted  after 
the  example  of  Spain,  and,  for  more  than  a  century, 
inflexibly  pursued,  in  no  less  than  twenty-nine  acts  of 
parliament.  The  colonists  were  allowed  to  sell  to 
foreigners  only  what  England  would  not  take  ;  that  so 
they  might  gain  means  to  pay  for  the  articles  forced 
upon  them  by  England.  The  commercial  liberties  of 
rising  states  were  shackled  by  paper  chains,  and  the 

i  Chalmers,  362.  See  Hutch.  3  For  example,  5  Geo.  II.  c, 
ColL  422.  xxii.  §  7  •  and  23  Geo.  II.  c.  xxix. 

9  25  Car.  II.  c.  viL 


COLONIAL  MONOPOLY.  45 

principles  of  natural  justice  subjected  to  the  fears  and  CHAP 
the  covetousness  of  English  shopkeepers.1  *-- -*—• ' 

The  effects  of  this  system  were  baleful  to  the 
colonies.  They  could  buy  European  and  all  foreign 
commodities  only  at  the  shops  of  the  metropolis ;  and 
thus  the  merchant  of  the  mother  country  could  sell  his 
goods  for  a  little  more  than  they  were  worth.  Eng- 
land gained  at  the  expense  of  America.  The  profit  of 
the  one  was  balanced  by  the  loss  of  the  other. 

In  the  sale  of  their  products  the  colonists  were 
equally  injured.  The  English,  being  the  sole  pur- 
chasers, could  obtain  those  products  at  a  little  less  than 
their  fair  value.  The  merchant  of  Bristol  or  London 
was  made  richer  ;  the  planter  of  Virginia  or  Maryland 
was  made  poorer.  No  new  value  was  created  ;  one 
lost  what  the  other  gained  ;  and  both  parties  had  equal 
claims  to  the  benevolence  of  the  legislature.2 

Thus  the  colonists  were  wronged,  both  in  theii 
purchases  and  in  their  sales  ;  the  law  "  cut  them  with 
a  double  edge."  The  English  consumer  gained  noth- 
ing ;  for  the  surplus  colonial  produce  was  reexported 
to  other  nations.  The  English  merchant,  and  not  the 
English  people,  profited  by  the  injustice,  The  Eng- 
lish people  were  sufferers.  Not  that  the  undue  em- 
ployment of  wealth  in  the  colonial  trade  occasioned  an 
injurious  scarcity  in  other  branches  of  industry  ;  for  the 
increased  productiveness  of  capital  soon  yielded  a 
larger  supply  than  ever  for  all  kinds  of  business  ;  just 
as  a  fortune  doubles  rapidly  at  a  high  rate  of  interest. 
But  the  navigation  act  involved  the  foreign  policy  of 
England  in  contradictions  ;  she  was  herself  a  monopo- 
list of  her  own  colonial  trade,  and  yet  steadily  aimed 

'  Burke.  »  Say,  ii.  288,  289 


46  THE  MONOPOLY  INJURIOUS  TO   ENGLAND. 

HHAP.  at  enfranchising  the  trade  of  the  Spanish  settlements 
— •^"  Hence  arose    a  set  of  relations  which  we  shall  find 
pregnant  with  consequences. 

In  the  domestic  policy  of  England,  the  act  increased 
the  tendency  to  unequal  legislation.  The  English 
merchant  having  become  the  sole  factor  for  American 
colonies,  and  the  manufacturer  claiming  to  supply 
colonial  wants,  the  English  landholder  consented  to 
uphold  the  artificial  system  only  by  sharing  in  its 
emoluments;  and  corn-laws  began  to  be  enacted, 
in  order  to  secure  the  profits  of  capital,  applied  to 
agriculture,  against  the  dangers  of  foreign  competition 
Thus  the  system  which  impoverished  the  Virginia 
planter,  by  lowering  the  price  of  his  tobacco  crop, 
oppressed  the  English  laborer,  by  raising  the  price  of 
his  bread ; *  till  at  last  a  whig  ministry 2  could  offer 
a  bounty  on  the  exportation  of  corn. 

The  law  was  still  more  injurious  to  England,  from 
its  influence  on  the  connection  between  the  colonies 
and  the  metropolis.  Durable  relations  in  society  are 
correlative,  and  reciprocally  beneficial.  In  this  case, 
the  statute  was  made  by  one  party  to  bind  the  other, 
and  was  made  on  iniquitous  principles.  Established 
as  the  law  of  the  strongest,  it  could  endure  no  longer 
than  the  superiority  in  force.  It  converted  commerce, 
which  should  be  the  bond  of  peace,  into  a  source  of 
rankling  hostility,  and  scattered  the  certain  seeds  of  a 
civil  war.  The  navigation  act  contained  a  pledge  of 
the  ultimate  independence  of  America. 

To  the  colonists,  the  navigation  act  was,  at  the  time, 
an  unmitigated  evil ;  for  the  prohibition3  of  plant- 

1  22  Car.  IL  c.  xiii.  3  12  Car.  IL  c.  TTTIV 

*  1  William  and  Mary.  •  Chalmers,  243. 


NAVIGATION   ACT.  47 

ing    tobacco  in  England   and  Ireland,  was  a  useless  CHAF 
mockery.  — -^ 

As  a  mode  of  taxing  the  colonies,  the  monopoly  was 
a  failure  ;  the  contribution  was  made  to  the  pocket  of 
the  merchant,  not  to  the  treasury  of  the  metropolis. 

The  usual  excuse  for  colonial  restrictions  is  founded 
on  the  principle  that  colonies  were  established  at  the 
cost  of  the  mother  country  for  that  very  purpose.1  In 
the  case  of  the  American  colonies,  the  apology  cannot  ^ 
be  urged.  The  state  founded  none  of  them.  The 
colonists  escaped  from  the  mother  country,  and  had,  at 
their  own  cost,  and  by  their  own  toil,  made  for  them- 
selves dwellings  in  the  New  World.  Virginia  was 
founded  by  a  private  company  ;  New  England  was 
the  home  of  exiles.  England  first  thrust  them  out ; 
and  she  owned  them  as  her  children  only  to  oppress 
them ! 

Again,  it  was  said  that  the  commercial  losses  of  the 
colonists  were  compensated  by  protection.  But  the 
connection  with  Europe  was  fraught  only  with  danger  ; 
for  the  rivalry  of  European  nations  did  but  transfer  the 
scenes  of  their  bloody  feuds  to  the  wilds  of  America. 

The  monopoly,  it  must  be  allowed,  was  of  the  least 
injurious  kind.  It  was  conceded,  not  to  an  individual, 
nor  to  a  company,  nor  to  a  single  city  ;  but  was  open 
to  the  competition  of  all  Englishmen.2 

The  history  of  the  navigation  act  would  be  incom- 
plete, were  it  not  added,  that,  whatever  party  obtained 
a  majority,  it  never,  till  the  colonies  gained  great 
strength,  occurred  to  the  British  parliament  that  the 
legislation  was  a  wrong.  Bigotry  is  not  exclusively  a 
passion  of  religious  superstition.  Its  root  is  in  the 

1  Montesquieu,  1.  xxi.,  c.  xxi.  2  6  Anne,  c.  zxxriL 


48  CHARLES  II. 

CHAP,  human    neart,    and    it   is   reproduced   in   ever)7   age. 

— ^*"  Blinding  the  intellectual  eye,  and  comprehending  no 
passion  but  its  own,  it  is  the  passionate  and  partial 
defence  of  an  existing  interest.  The  Antonincs  of 
Rome,  or,  not  to  go  beyond  English  history,  Elizabeth 
and  Charles  I.,  did  not  question  the  divine  right  of 
absolute  power.  "  Were  Nero  in  power,"  said  Crom 
well  himself,  when  protector,  "  it  would  be  a  duty  to 
submit."  When  Laud  was  arraigned,  "  Can  any  one 
believe  me  a  traitor?"  exclaimed  the  astonished  prelate, 
with  real  surprise.  The  Cavaliers,  in  the  civil  war, 
did  not  doubt  the  sanctity  of  the  privileges  of  birth  ; 
and  now  the  English  parliament,  as  the  instrument  of 
mercantile  avarice,  had  no  scruple  in  commencing  the 
legislation,  which,  when  the  colonists  grew  powerful, 
was,  by  the  greatest  British  economist,  declared  to 
be  "  a  manifest  violation  of  the  rights  of  mankind." ] 

Such  was  the  disposition  of  the  English  parliament 
towards  the  colonies :  the  changes  in  their  internal 
constitutions  were  to  depend  on  the  personal  character 
of  the  monarch  whom  England  had  taken  into  favor. 

The  tall  and  swarthy  grandson  of  Henry  IV.  of 
France,  was  naturally  possessed  of  a  disposition  which, 
had  he  preserved  purity  of  morals,  had  made  him  one 
of  the  most  amiable  of  men.  It  was  his  misfortune,  in 
very  early  life,  to  have  become  thoroughly  debauched 
in  mind  and  heart ;  and  adversity,  usually  the  rugged 
nurse  of  virtue,  made  the  selfish  libertine  but  the  more 
reckless  in  his  profligacy.  He  did  not  merely  indulge 
his  passions  ;  his  neck  bowed  to  the  yoke  of  lewdness. 
He  was  attached  to  women,  not  from  love,  for  he  had 
110  jealousy,  and  was  regardless  of  infidelities ;  noi 

i  Smith's  Wealth  of  Nations. 


CHARLES  II.  4€* 

entirely  from  debauch,  but  from  the  pleasure  of  living  CHAP 
near  them,  and  sauntering  in  their  company.  His  <~~«~*> 
delight — such  is  the  record  of  the  royalist  Evelyn — was 
in  "  concubines,  and  cattle  of  that  son ; "  and  up  to 
the  last  week  of  his  life,  he  spent  his  time  in  dissolute- 
ness, toying  with  his  mistresses,  and  listening  to  love- 
songs.1  If  decision  ever  broke  through  his  abject  vices, 
it  was  but  a  momentary  flash  ;  a  life  of  pleasure  sapped 
his  moral  courage,  and  left  him  imbecile,  fit  only  to  be 
the  tool  of  courtiers,  and  the  dupe  of  mistresses.  Did 
the  English  commons  impeach  Clarendon  ?  Charles 
II.  could  think  of  nothing  but  how  to  get  the  duchess 
of  Richmond  to  court  again.  Was  the  Dutch  war 
signalized  by  disasters  ?  "  the  king  did  still  follow  his 
women  as  much  as  ever ; "  and  took  more  pains  to 
reconcile  the  chambermaids  of  Lady  Castle maine,  or 
make  friends  of  the  rival  beauties  of  his  court,  than  to 
save  his  kingdom.  He  was  "governed  by  his  lust,  and 
the  women,  and  the  rogues  about  him." 

The  natural  abilities  of  Charles  II.  were  probably 
overrated.  He  was  incapable  of  a  strong  purpose  or 
steady  application.  He  read  imperfectly  and  ill.8 
When  drunk,  he  was  a  silly,  good-natured,  subservient 
fool.3  In  the  council  of  state,  he  played  with  his  dog, 
never  minding  the  business,  or  making  a  speech,  mem- 
orable only  for  its  silliness  ; 4  and  if  he  visited  the  naval 
magazines,  "  his  talk  was  equally  idle  and  frothy." 5 

The  best  trait  in  his  character  was  his  natural  kind- 
liness. Yet  his  benevolence  was  in  part  a  weakness ; 
his  bounty  was  that  of  facility ;  and  his  placable  tem- 
per, incapable  of  strong  revenge,  was  equally  incapable 

i  Evelyn.          3  Pepys,  ii.  130.        5  Pepys,  L  243 
*  Pepys,  L  243.       *  Ibid.  ii.  123.  130. 

VOL.  II.          7 


50  CHARLES  II. 

CHAP,  of  affection.     He  so  loved  his  present  tranquillity,  that 

he  signed  the  death-warrants  of  innocent  men,  rather 

than  risk  disquiet ;  but  of  himself  he  was  merciful,  and 
was  reluctant  to  hang  any  but  republicans.  His  love 
of  placid  enjoyments  and  of  ease  continued  to  the  end. 
Qn  the  last  morning  of  his  life,  he  bade  his  attendants 
open  the  curtains  of  his  bed,  and  the  windows  of  his 
bed-chamber,  that  he  might  once  more  see  the  sun.1 
He  desired  absolution ;  "  For  God's  sake,  send  for  a 
Catholic  priest ; "  but  checked  himself,  adding,  "  it 
may  expose  the  duke  of  York  to  danger." 2  He  par- 
doned all  his  enemies,  no  doubt  sincerely.  The  queen 
sent  to  beg  forgiveness  for  any  offences.  "  Alas,  poor 
woman,  she  beg  my  pardon  !  "  he  replied ;  "  I  beg  hers 
with  all  my  heart ;  take  back  to  her  that  answer." 3 
He  expressed  some  regard  for  his  brother,  his  children, 
his  mistresses.  "  Do  not  leave  poor  Nelly  Gwyn  to 
starve,"  was  almost  his  last  commission.4 

Such  was  the  lewd  king  of  England,  on  whose  favor 
depended  the  liberties  of  the  New  England  colonies, 
where  lewdness  was  held  a  crime,  and  adultery  in- 
exorably punished  by  death  on  the  gallows. 
1660.  Massachusetts,  strong  in  its  charter,  made  no  haste 
to  present  itself  in  England  as  a  suppliant.  "  The 
colony  of  Boston,"  wrote  Stuyvesant,5  "  remains  con- 
stant to  its  old  maxims  of  a  free  state,  dependent  on  none 
but  God."  Had  the  king  resolved  on  sending  them  a 
governor,  the  several  towns  and  churches  throughout 
the  whole  country  were  resolved  to  oppose  him.6 

1  Barillon,  in  Dalrymple,  App.  to  4  Burnet,  ii.  284.    So,  too,  Eve 

p.  L  b.  i.    Compare  James'  II.  Me-  lyn,  iii.  132. 

moirs,  i.  746 ;  Evelyn,  iii.  130,  131.  5  Albany    Records,    xviii.    124. 

*  James'  II.  Memoirs,  i.  747.  Oct  6.  1660. 

»  Dalrymple,  book  i.  p.  66.  6  Hutch.  Coll.  339 ;  Belknap,  437. 


CONNECTICUT  AND  CHARLES  II.  61 

The  colonies  of  Plymouth,  of  Hartford  and  New  CHAP 
Haven,  not  less  than  of  Rhode  Island,  proclaimed  the  — v-L. 
new  king,    and  acted   in  his  name ; *  and  the  rising  166° 
republic  on  the  Connecticut  appeared  in  London  by  its 
representative,  the  younger  Winthrop,  who  went,  as  it 
were,  between  the  mangled  limbs  of  his  father-in-law, 
to  ensure  the  welfare  of  his  fellow-exiles  in  the  west. 
They  had  purchased  their  lands  of  the  assigns  of  the 
earl  of  Warwick,  and  from  Uncas  they  had  bought  the  1661 
territory  of  the  Mohegans  ;  and  the  news  of  the  resto-     j"' 
ration  awakened  a  desire  for  a  patent.     But  the  little 
colony  proceeded  warily  ;  they  draughted  among  them- 
selves the  instrument  which  they  desired  the  king  to 
ratify  ;  and  they  could  plead  for  their  possessions  their 
rights  by  purchase,  by  conquest  from  the  Pequods,  and 
by  their  own  labor,  which  had  redeemed  the  wilder- 
ness.    A  letter  was  also  addressed  from  Connecticut  1661 
to  the  aged  Lord  Say  and  Seal,2  the  early  friend  of  the 
emigrants,  and  now,  on  the  restoration,  while  it  was 
yet  the  royal  policy  to  conciliate  the  Presbyterians,  a 
favored  officer  of  the  crown.     By  the  memory  of  past 
benefits,    and    the    promise   of  grateful   regard,    they 
request  his  influence  to  obtain  for  them  a  guaranty  for 
their  liberties. 

The  venerable  man,  too  aged  for  active  exertion, 
secured  for  his  clients  the  kind  offices  of  the  lord  cham- 
berlain, the  earl  of  Manchester,  a  man  "  of  an  obliging 
temper,  universally  beloved,  being  of  a  virtuous  and 
generous  mind." 3  "  Indeed  he  was  a  noble  and  a 
worthy  lord,  and  one  that  loved  the  godly."  "  He 

1  Quantum  mutatus  ab  illo  Hec-  which  never  was  regicide.     Alba 

tore,  adds  Stuyvesant,  who  was  very  ny  Records,  xviiL  133. 

fond  of  a  Latin  quotation.     There  2  See  Trumbull,  i.  App.  viL  viii. 

was,  however,  no  change  in  the  po-  ix. 

litical  principles  of  New  England,  3  Burnet,  i.  134. 


32  THE  YOUNGER  WINTHROP. 

CHAP,  and  Lord  Say  did  join  together,  that  their  godly  friends 
— ~  in  New  England  might  enjoy  their  just  rights  and 
1661.  liberties." 

But  the  chief  happiness  of  Connecticut  was  in  the 
selection  of  its  agent.     In  the  younger  Winthiop,  the 
qualities  of  human  excellence  were  mingled  in  such 
happy  proportions,  that,  wThile  he  always  wore  an  air 
of  contentment,  no  enterprise  in  which  he  engaged 
seemed  too  lofty  for  his  powers.     Even  as  a  child,  he 
had  been  the  pride  of  his  father's  house  ;  he  had  re- 
ceived   the    best    instruction   which    Cambridge   and 
Dublin  could  afford ;  and  had  perfected  his  education 
by  visiting,  in  part  at  least,  in  the  public  service,  not 
Holland  and  France  only,  in  the  days  of  Prince  Maurice 
and  Richelieu,  but  Venice  and  Constantinople.1     From 
boyhood  his  manners  had  been  spotless  ;  and  the  purity 
of  his  soul  added  lustre  and  beauty  to  the  gifts  of  nature 
and  industry;2  as  he  travelled  through  Europe,  he 
sought  the  society  of  men  eminent  for  learning.     Re- 
turning to  England  in  the  bloom  of  life,  with  every 
promise   of  preferment   which  genius,   gentleness   of 
temper,  and  influence  at  court,  could  inspire,  he  pre- 
ferred to  follow  his  father  to  the  new  world  ;  regarding 
"  diversities  of  countries  but  as  so  many  inns,"  alike 
conducting  to  "  the  journey's  end." 3     When  his  father, 
ihe  father  of  Massachusetts,  became  impoverished  by 
his  expenses  in  planting  the  colony,  the   pious  son, 
unsolicited  and  without  recompense,  relinquished  his 
large  inheritance,  that  "  it  might  be  spent  in  furthering 
the  great  work"4  in  Massachusetts;  himself,  single- 
handed  and  without  wealth,  engaging  in  the  enterprise 

Winthrop,  i.  348  and  354  ;  Ma-        3  His  letter,  in  Winfinrop,  i.  359. 
tber,  b.  ii.  c.  xi.  4  Mather,  b.  ii.  c.  xi. ,  Winthrop's 

8  Winthrop,  i.  341.  will,  in  Winthrop,  ii.  3CO. 


THE   YOUNGER   WINTHROP.  53 

of  planting  Connecticut.  Care  for  posterity  seemed  CHAP 
the  motive  to  his  actions.1  His  vast  and  elevated  mind  — ^- 
had,  moreover,  that  largeness,  that  he  respected  learn- 
ing,  and  virtue,  and  genius,  in  whatever  sect  they 
might  be  found.  No  narrow  bigotry  limited  his  affec- 
tions or  his  esteem  ;  and  when  Quakers  had  become 
the  objects  of  persecution,  he  was  earnest  and  unre- 
mitting in  argument  and  entreaty,  to  prevent  the  effu- 
sion of  blood.2  Master  over  his  own  mind,  he  never 
regretted  the  brilliant  prospects  he  had  resigned,  nor 
complained  of  the  comparative  solitude  of  New  Lon- 
don ;  a  large  library 3  furnished  employment  to  his  mind ; 
the  study  of  nature,  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
philosophy  of  Bacon,  was  his  delight ;  for  "  he  had  a 
gift  in  understanding  and  art ;  "  and  his  home  was 
endeared  by  a  happy  marriage,  and  "  many  sweet  chil- 
dren." His  knowledge  of  human  nature  was  as 
remarkable  as  his  virtues.  He  never  attempted  im- 
practicable things  ;  but,  understanding  the  springs  of 
action,  and  the  principles  that  control  affairs,  he  calmly 
and  noiselessly  succeeded  in  all  that  he  undertook. 
The  New  World  was  full  of  his  praises ;  Puritans,  and 
Quakers,  and  the  freemen  of  Rhode  Island,4  were  alike 
nis  eulogists  ;  the  Dutch  at  New  York,  not  less  than 
all  New  England,  had  confidence  in  his  integrity ; 5 
Clarendon6  and  Milton,  Newton  and  Robert  Boyle,7 

1  "And  zealous  care  for  their  pos-        3  Winthrop,  ii.  20. 

.eritie,  Of  all   his  acts,  the  primum  4  Roger   Williams's   Letters,  in 

mobile."     Wolcott  Knowles. 

2  Bishop's  N.  E.  Judged.     "  Did  5  Albany  Records,  iv.    405,  and 
not  John  Winthrope,  the  Governor  xviii.  188,  189. 

of  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticote,  6  MSS.  in  my  possession, 

labor  with  you,  that  ye  would  not  7  "  Mr.  Winthrop,  my  particular 

put  them  to  death  ?     And  did  he  acquaintance."    R.  Boyle's  letter,  in 

not  say  unto  you,  that  he  would  beg  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xviii.  49.     Dedica- 

it  of  you  on  his  bare  knees,  that  ye  tion  of  vol.  xl.  of  the  Transactions 

would  not  do  it  ?  "     p.  157.  of  the  Royal  Society. 


54  THE  YOUNGER   WINTHROP. 

CHAP,  became  his  correspondents.     If  he  had  faults,  they  are 
^-v-^  forgotten.     In  history  he  appears  by  unanimous  con- 

1661.  sent,1  from  early  life,  without  a  blemish ;  and  it  is 
the  beautiful  testimony  of  his  own  father,  that  "  God 
gave  him  favor  in  the  eyes  of  all  with  whom  he  had 
to   do."     In  his  interview  with  Charles  II.,  there  is 
reason  to  believe,  he  was  able  to  inspire  that  natur- 
ally benevolent  monarch  with  curiosity ;  perhaps  he 
amused   him  with   accounts  of  Indian   warfare,   and 
descriptions  of  the   marvels  of  a  virgin  world.      A 
favorable  recollection  of  Charles  I.,  who  had  been  a 
friend   to   his  father's  father,  and  who    gave   to  his 
family  an  hereditary  claim  on  the  Stuarts,  was  effect- 
ually revived.     His  personal  merits,  sympathy  for  his 
family,  his  exertions,  the  petition  of  the  colony,  and, 
as  I  believe,  the   real   good  will  of  Clarendon, — for 

1662.  we  must  not  reject  all  faith  in  generous  feeling, — 
2Po"    easily  prevailed  to  obtain  for  Connecticut  an  ample 

patent.  The  courtiers  of  King  Charles,  who  them- 
selves had  an  eye  to  possessions  in  America,  sug- 
gested no  limitations;  and  perhaps  it  was  believed, 
that  Connecticut  would  serve  to  balance  the  power 
of  Massachusetts. 

The  charter,  disregarding  the  hesitancy  of  New 
Haven,  the  rights  of  the  colony  of  New  Belgium,  and 
the  claims  of  Spain  on  the  Pacific,  connected  New 
Haven  with  Hartford  in  one  colony,  of  which  the 
limits  were  extended  from  the  Narragansett  River  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  How  strange  is  the  connection  of 
events!  Winthrop  not  only  secured  to  his  state  a 
peaceful  century  of  colonial  existence,  but  prepared 
the  claim  for  western  lands.  Under  his  wise  direction, 

1  Thurloe,  i.  763  ;  "  a  person  of  signal  worth,  as  all  reports  present." 


CONNECTICUT   OBTAINS  A  CHAETEE.  55 

the  careless  benevolence  of  Charles  II.  provided  in  CHAP. 
advance  the  school  fund  of  Connecticut.  ^~~ 

With  regard  to  powers  of  government,  the  charter  1662. 
was  still  more  extraordinary.  It  conferred  on  the 
colonists  unqualified  power  to  govern  themselves. 
They  were  allowed  to  elect  all  their  own  officers,  to 
enact  their  own  laws,  to  administer  justice  without 
appeals  to  England,  to  inflict  punishments,  to  confer 
pardons,  and,  in  a  word,  to  exercise  every  power, 
deliberative  and  active.  The  king,  far  from,  reserving 
a  negative  on  the  acts  of  the  colony,  did  not  even 
require  that  the  laws  should  be  transmitted  for  his 
inspection ;  and  no  provision  was  made  for  the  inter- 
ference of  the  English  government  in  any  event  what- 
ever. Connecticut  was  independent  except  in  name. 
Charles  II.  and  Clarendon  thought  they  had  created  a 
close  corporation,  and  they  had  really  sanctioned  a 
democracy. 

After  his  successful  negotiations,1  and  efficient  con- 
cert in  founding  the  Royal  Society,  Winthrop  returned 
to  America,  bringing  with  him  a  name  which  England 
honored,  and  which  his  country  should  never  forget, 
and  resumed  his  tranquil  life  in  rural  retirement.  The 
amalgamation  of  the  two  colonies  could  not  be  effected 
without  collision ;  and  New  Haven  had  been  unwilling 
to  merge  itself  in  the  larger  colony ;  the  wise  modera- 
tion of  Winthrop  was  able  to  reconcile  the  jarrings, 
and  blend  the  interests  of  the  united  colonies.  The 
universal  approbation  of  Connecticut  followed  him 
throughout  all  the  remainder  of  his  life;  for  twice 


i  Savage,  in  his  second  edition  of  edition,    respecting    the    letter,    sup- 

Winthrop's    Journal,    published     in  posed    to    have    been   addressed    by 

1853,  vol.  i.  p.  151,  corrects  the  opinion  Charles  II.  to  the  younger  Winthrop. 
which  he  had  expressed  in  his  first 


56  CONNECTICUT. 

CHAP,  seven  years  he  continued  to  be  annually  elected  to 

^^  the  office  of  her  chief  magistrate.1 

And  the  gratitude  of  Connecticut  was  reasonable. 

1676.  The  charter  which  Winthrop  had  obtained,  secured  to 
her  an  existence  of  tranquillity  which  could  not  be  sur- 
passed. Civil  freedom  was  safe  under  the  shelter  of 
masculine  morality ;  and  beggary  and  crime  could  not 
thrive  in  the  midst  of  severest  manners.  From  the 
first,  the  minds  of  the  yeomanry  were  kept  active  by 
the  constant  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise ;  and, 
except  under  James  II.,  there  was  no  such  thing  in 
the  land  as  an  officer  appointed  by  the  English  king. 
Connecticut,  from  the  first,  possessed  unmixed  popular 
liberty.  The  government  was  in  honest  and  upright 
hands ;  the  little  strifes  of  rivalry  never  became  heated ; 
the  magistrates  were  sometimes  persons  of  no  ordinary 
endowments ;  but  though  gifts  of  learning  and  genius 
were  valued,  the  state  was  content  with  virtue  and 
single-mindedness ;  and  the  public  welfare  never  suf- 
fered at  the  hands  of  plain  men.  Roger  Williams  had 
ever  been  a  welcome  guest  at  Hartford ;  and  "  that 
heavenly  man,  John  Haynes,"  would  say  to  him,  "  I 
think,  Mr.  Williams,  I  must  now  confesse  to  you,  that 
the  most  wise  God  hath  provided  and  cut  out  this 
part  of  the  world  as  a  refuge  and  receptacle  for  all 
sorts  of  consciences." a  There  never  existed  a  perse- 
cuting spirit 3  in  Connecticut ;  while  "  it  had  a  scholar 
to  their  minister  in  every  town  or  village."  Educa- 
tion was  cherished;  religious  knowledge  was  carried 

'  Compare  further  on  the  younger  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  i.  280. 

Winthrop,    Savage,   in   Winthrop,   i.  8  So  Douglas,  ii.  135.      "I  never 

64,   and    126;    Eliot's    Biog.   Diet.;  heard  of   any  persecuting    spirit    in 

Roger  Wolcott,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  Connecticut ;    in  this  they  are  egre- 

iv.  262-298.  giously  aspersed." 


CON1SECTICUT.  57 

to  the  highest  degree  of  refinement,  alike  in  its  appli-  CHAP. 
cation  to  moral  duties,  and  to  the  mysterious  ques-  ^v^> 
tions  on  the  nature  of  God,  of  liberty,  and  of  the 
soul.  A  hardy  race  multiplied  along  the  alluvion  of 
the  streams,  and  subdued  the  more  rocky  and  less 
inviting  fields ;  its  population  for  a  century  doubled 
once  in  twenty  years,  in  spite  of  considerable  emi- 
gration ;  and  if,  as  has  often  been  said,  the  ratio  of 
the  increase  of  population  is  the  surest  criterion  of 
public  happiness,  Connecticut  was  long  the  happiest 
state  in  the  world.1  Religion  united  with  the  pur- 
suits of  agriculture,  to  give  to  the  land  the  aspect  of 
salubrity.  The  domestic  wars  were  discussions  of 
knotty  points  in  theology ;  the  concerns  of  the  parish, 
the  merits  of  the  minister,  were  the  weightiest  affairs ; 
and  a  church  reproof  the  heaviest  calamity.  The 
strifes  of  the  parent  country,  though  they  sometimes 
occasioned  a  levy  among  the  sons  of  the  husbandmen, 
yet  never  brought  an  enemy  within  their  borders; 
tranquillity  .was  within  their  gates,  and  the  peace 
of  God  within  their  hearts.  No  fears  of  midnight 
ruffians  could  disturb  the  sweetness  of  slumber ;  the 
best  house  required  no  fastening  but  a  latch,  lifted  by 
a  string ;  bolts  and  locks  were  unknown. 

There  was  nothing  morose  in  the  Connecticut  char- 
acter. It  was  temperate  industry  enjoying  the  abun- 
dance which  it  had  created.  No  great  inequalities 
of  condition  excited  envy,  or  raised  political  feuds; 
wealth  could  display  itself  only  in  a  larger  house  and 
a  fuller  barn ;  and  covetousness  was  satisfied  by  the 


1  Trurabull,  i.  451,  gives  the  num-     There  were,  probably,   as    many  as 
her  of  inhabitants  at  17,000,  in  1713.     17,000,  and  more,  in  1688. 


58  CONNECTICUT. 

CHAP,  tranquil  succession  of  harvests.  There  was  venison 
>^v^/  from  the  hills ;  salmon,  in  their  season,  not  less  than 
shad,  from  the  rivers ;  and  sugar  from  the  trees  of 
the  forest.  For  a  foreign  market  little  was  produced 
beside  cattle ;  and  in  return  for  them  but  few  foreign 
luxuries  stole  in.  Even  so  late  as  1713,  the  number 
of  seamen  did  not  exceed  one  hundred  and  twenty.1 
The  soil  had  originally  been  justly  divided,  or  held 
as  common  property  in  trust  for  the  public,  and  for 
new  comers.  Forestalling  was  successfully  resisted ; 
the  brood  of  speculators  in  land  inexorably  turned 
aside.  Happiness  was  enjoyed  unconsciously;  be- 
neath the  rugged  exterior  humanity  wore  its  sweetest 
smile.  There  was  for  a  long  time  hardly  a  lawyer 
in  the  land.  The  husbandman  who  held  his  own 
plough,  and  fed  his  own  cattle,  was  the  great  man 
of  the  age ;  no  one  was  superior  to  the  matron,  who, 
with  her  busy  daughters,  kept  the  hum  of  the  wheel 
incessantly  alive,  spinning  and  weaving  every  ar- 
ticle of  their  dress.  Fashion  was  confined  within 
narrow  limits,  and  pride,  which  aimed  at  no  grander 
equipage  than  a  pillion,  could  exult  only  in  the  com- 
mon splendor  of  the  blue  and  white  linen  gown,  with 
short  sleeves,  coming  down  to  the  waist,  and  in  the 
snow-white  flaxen  apron,  which,  primly  starched  and 
ironed,  was  worn  on  public  days  by  every  woman  in 
the  land.  For  there  was  no  revolution  except  from 
the  time  of  sowing  to  the  time  of  reaping ;  from  the 
plain  dress  of  the  week  day  to  the  more  trim  attire 
of  Sunday. 

Every  family  was  taught  to  look  upward  to  God,  as 

i  Trumbull,  i.  453. 


CONNECTICUT. 


69 


to  the  Fountain  of  all  good.     Yet  life  was  not  sombre.  CHAP 

JvJ.. 

The  spirit  of  frolic  mingled  with  innocence  :  religion  ~^^- 
itself  sometimes  wore    the  garb  of  gayety;  and  the 
annual  thanksgiving  to  God  was,  from  primitive  times, 
as  joyous  as  it  was  sincere.     Nature  always  asserts  her 
rights,  and  abounds  in  means  of  gladness. 

The  frugality  of  private  life  had  its  influence  on 
public  expenditure.  Half  a  century  after  the  conces- 
sion of  the  charter,  the  annual  expenses  of  the  govern- 
ment did  not  exceed  eight  hundred  pounds,  or  four 
thousand  dollars  ;  and  the  wages  of  the  chief  justice 
were  ten  shillings  a  day  while  on  service.  In  each 
county  a  magistrate  acted  as  judge  of  probate,  and  the 
business  was  transacted  with  small  expense  to  the 
fatherless.1 

Education  was  always  esteemed  a  concern  of  deepest 
interest,  and  there  were  common  schools  from  the  first. 
Nor  was  it  long  before  a  small  college,  such  as  the  day 
of  small  things  permitted,  began  to  be  established ; 
and  Yale  owes  its  birth  "  to  ten  worthy  fathers,  who, 
in  1700,  assembled  at  Branford,  and  each  one,  laying 
a  few  volumes  on  a  table,  said,  '  I  give  these  books  for 
the  founding  of  a  college  in  this  colony.'  " 

But  the  political  education  of  the  people  is  due  to 
the  happy  organization  of  towns,  which  here,  as  indeed 
throughout  all  New  England,  constituted  each  separate 
settlement  a  little  democracy  of  itself.  It  was  the 
natural  reproduction  of  the  system,  which  the  instinct 
of  humanity  had  imperfectly  revealed  to  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  ancestors.  In  the  ancient  republics,  citizenship 
had  been  an  hereditary  privilege.  In  Connecticut, 
citizenship  was  acquired  by  inhabitancy,  was  lost  by 

i  Trumbull.  i.  452,  453. 


60  CONNECTICUT. 

CHAP,  removal.  Each  town-meeting  was  a  little  legislature, 
-~v-*-  and  all  inhabitants,  the  affluent  and  the  more  needy, 
the  wise  and  the  foolish,  were  members  with  equal 
franchises.  There  the  taxes  of  the  town  were  dis- 
cussed and  levied ;  there  the  village  officers  were 
chosen  ;  there  roads  were  laid  out,  and  bridges  voted  ; 
there  the  minister  was  elected,  the  representatives  to 
the  assembly  were  instructed.  The  debate  was  open 
to  all ;  wisdom  asked  no  favors ;  the  churl  abated 
nothing  of  his  pretensions.  Whoever  reads  the  records 
of  these  village  democracies,  will  be  perpetually  coming 
upon  some  little  document  of  political  wisdom,  which 
breathes  the  freshness  of  rural  legislation,  and  wins  a 
disproportioned  interest,  from  the  justice  and  simplicity 
of  the  times.  As  the  progress  of  society  required 
exertions  in  a  wider  field,  the  public  mind  was  quick- 
ened by  associations  that  were  blended  with  early 
history ;  and  when  Connecticut  emerged  from  the  quiet 
of  its  origin,  and  made  its  way  into  scenes  where  a 
new  political  world  was  to  be  created,  the  sagacity  that 
had  regulated  the  affairs  of  the  village,  gained  admira- 
tion in  the  field  and  in  council. 

During  the  intervening  century,  we  shall  rarely  have 
occasion  to  recur  to  Connecticut ;  its  institutions  were 
perfected.  For  more  than  a  century,  peace  was  within 
its  borders ;  and,  with  transient  interruptions,  its 
democratic  institutions  were  unharmed.  For  a  cen- 
tury, with  short  exceptions,  its  history  is  the  picture 
of  colonial  happiness.  To  describe  its  condition  is 
but  to  enumerate  the  blessings  of  self-government, 
as  exercised  by  a  community  of  farmers,  who  have 
leisure  to  reflect,  who  cherish  education,  and  who  have 
neither  a  nobility  nor  a  populace.  How  dearly  it 


RHODE  ISLAND  AND   CHARLES   II.  6J 

remembered  the  parent  island,  is  told  by  the  English  CHAP 
names  of  its  towns.     Could  Charles  II.  have  looked  •—- *~ 
back  upon  earth,  and  seen  what  security  his  gift  of  a 
charter  had  conferred,  he  might  have  gloried  in  an  act 
which  redeemed  his  life  from  the  charge  of  having  been 
unproductive  of  public  happiness.     The  contentment 
of  Connecticut   was  full  to  the   brim.     In  a  public 
proclamation  under  the  great  seal  of  the  colony,  it  told 
the  world  that  its  days  under  the  charter  were  "  hal- 
cyon days  of  peace." 

Those  days  never  will  return.  Time,  as  it  advances, 
never  reproduces  an  old  piece,  but  unfolds  new  scenes 
in  the  grand  drama  of  human  existence — scenes  of 
more  glory,  of  more  wealth,  of  more  action,  but  not  of 
more  tranquillity  and  purity.  „ 

Rhode  Island  was  fostered  by  Charles  II.  with  still 
greater  liberality.      When   Roger  Williams  had  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  from  the   Long  Parliament   the  1652 
confirmed  union  of  the  territories  that  now  constitute 
the  state,  he  returned  to  America,  leaving  John  Clarke 
as  the  agent  of  the  colony  in  England.     Never  did  a 
young  commonwealth  possess  a  more  faithful  friend ; 
and  never  did  a  young  people  cherish  a  fonder  desire 
for  the  enfranchisement  of  mind.     "  Plead  our  case,"  1658 
they  had  said  to  him  in  previous  instructions,  which      5. 
Gorton  and  others  had  draughted,1  "  in  such  sort  as  we 
may  not  be  compelled  to  exercise  any  civil  power  over 
men's  consciences  ;  we  do  judge  it  no  less  than  a  point 
of  absolute  cruelty."     And  now  that  the  hereditary  1660 
monarch  was  restored  and  duly  acknowledged,  they 
had  faith  that  "  the  gracious  hand  of  Providence  would 

1  MS.  extracts  from  the  records,  ment  is  of  the  highest  interest ;  no 
The  instructions  are  printed  in  Mass,  learning  or  skill  in  rhetoric  could 
Hist  Coll.  xvii.  85 — 87.  The  docu-  have  mended  it 


OZ  RHODE  ISLAND  OBTAINS  A  CHARTLR. 

CHAP,  preserve  them  in  their  just  rights  and  privileges."1     "It 

~^"-  is  much  in  our  hearts,"  they  urged  in  their  petition  to 
Charles  II.,  "  to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment,  that  a 
most  flourishing  civil  state  may  stand,  and  best  be 
maintained,  with  a  full  liberty  of  religious  concern- 
ments." The  benevolent  monarch  listened  to  their 

1662.  petition  ;  it  is  more  remarkable  that  Clarendon  exerted 
himself2  for  the  men  who  used  to  describe  themselves 
as  having  fled  from  bishops  as  from  wolves ;  the 
experiment  of  religious  freedom  in  a  nook  of  a  remote 
continent,  could  not  appear  dangerous ;  it  might  at 
once  build  up  another  rival  to  Massachusetts,  and  solve 
a  curious  problem  in  the  history  of  man.  The  charter, 

1663  therefore,  which  was  delayed  only  by  controversies 
about  bounds,  was  at  length  perfected,  and,  with  new 
principles,  imbodied  all  that  had  been  granted  to  Con- 
necticut.3 The  supreme  power  was  committed — the 
rule  continues  to-day — to  a  governor,  deputy-gov- 
ernor, ten  assistants,  now  called  senators,  and  deputies 
from  the  towns.  It  marks  a  singular  moderation,  that 
the  scruples  of  the  inhabitants  were  so  respected,  that 
no  oath  of  allegiance 4  was  required  of  them  ;  the  laws 
were  to  be  agreeable  to  those  of  England,  yet  with 
the  kind  reference  "  to  the  constitution  of  the  place, 
and  the  nature  of  the  people ; "  and  with  great  benevo- 
lence the  monarch  proceeded  to  exercise,  as  his  biother 
attempted  to  do  in  England,  and  as  by  the  laws  ot 
England  he  could  not  exercise  within  the  realm,  the 
dispensing  power  in  matters  of  religion.  "  No  person 
within  the  said  colony,  at  any  time  hereafter,  shall  (wj 
any  wise  molested,  punished,  disquieted,  or  called  in 

1  Commission  to  John  Clarke,  in        3  Hazard,  ii.  612,  &c. ;  and  also 
Mass.  Hist  Coll.  xvii.  90,  91.  Knowles,  A  pp.  G. 

*  R.  I.  Records.  4  Hazard,  ii.  617. 


RHODE   ISLAND   ACCEPTS  THE   CHARTER.  63 

question,   for  any  difference  in  opinion  in  matters  of  CHAP 
religion  ;  every  person  may  at  all  times  freely  and  fully  — ~<~~ 
enjoy  his  own  judgment  and  conscience  in  matters  of  1663 
religious  concernments."      The  charter  did  not  limit 
freedom  to  Christian  sects  alone  ;  it  granted  equal  rights 
to  the   painim,  and  the  worshipper  of  Fo.      To  the 
disciples  of  Confucius  it  was,  on  the  part  of  a  Christian 
prince,  no  more  than  an  act  of  reciprocal  justice  ;  the 
charter  of  Rhode   Island  was  granted  just  one   year 
after  the  emperor  of  China  had  proclaimed  the  enfran- 
chisement of  Christianity  among  the  hundred  millions 
of  his  people. 

No  joy  could  be  purer  than  that  of  the  colonists, 
when  the  news  was  spread  abroad,  that  "  George 
Baxter,1  the  most  faythful  and  happie  bringer  of  the 
charter,"  had  arrived.  On  the  beautiful  island,  long  NOV. 
esteemed  a  paragon  for  fertility,  and  famed  as  one  of 
the  pleasantest  sea-side  spots  in  the  world,  the  whole 
body  of  the  people  gathered  together,  "  for  the  solemn 
reception  of  his  majesty's  gracious  letters  patent."  It 
was  "  a  very  great  meeting  and  assembly."  The 
letters  of  the  agent  "  were  opened,  and  read  with  good 
delivery  and  attention ;"  the  charter  was  next  taken  forth 
from  the  precious  box  that  had  held  it,  and  "  was  read 
by  Baxter,  in  the  audience  and  view  of  all  the  people  ; 
and  the  letters  with  his  majesty's  royal  stamp,  and  the 
broad  seal,  with  much  beseeming  gravity,  were  held  up 
on  high,  and  presented  to  the  perfect  view  of  the 
people."  Now  their  republic  was  safe  ;  Massachusetts 
had  denied  its  separate  existence  ;  she  must  yield  to 
the  willing  witness  of  their  sovereign.  And  how 
rould  the  inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island  be  otherwise 

i  Backus,  almost  always  very  accurate,  here  mistakes  the  name. 


64  RHODE  ISLAND  AND  CHARLES  11. 

CHAP,  than  grateful  to  Charles  II.,  who  had  granted  to  them 

*• all  that  they  had  asked,  and  who  relied  on  their  aflfec- 

1 S63'  tions,  without  exacting  even  the  oath  of  allegiance  ? 

This  charter  of  government,  constituting,  as  it  then 
seemed,  a  pure  democracy,  and  establishing  a  political 
system  which  few  beside  the  Rhode  Islanders  them- 
selves believed  to  be  practicable,  remained  in  existence 
till  it  became  the  oldest  constitutional  charter  in  the 
world.  It  outlived  the  principles  of  Clarendon  and 
the  policy  of  Charles  II.  The  probable  population  of 
Rhode  Island,  at  the  time  of  its  reception,  may  have 
been  two  thousand  five  hundred.  In  one  hundred  and 
seventy  years,  that  number  increased  forty  fold ;  and 
the  government,  which  was  hardly  thought  to  contain 
checks  enough  on  the  power  of  the  people,  to  endure 
even  among  shepherds  and  farmers,  protected  a  dense 
population,  and  the  accumulations  of  a  widely-extended 
commerce.  No  where  in  the  world  were  life,  liberty, 
and  property,  safer  than  in  Rhode  Island. 

The  thanks  of  the  colony  were  unanimously  voted 
to  a  triumvirate  of  benefactors 1 — to  "  King  Charles  of 
England,  for  his  high  and  inestimable,  yea,  incompara- 
ble favor;"  to  Clarendon,  the  historian,  the  statesman, 
the  prime  minister,  who  had  shown  "  to  the  colony 
exceeding  great  care  and  love;"  and  to  the  modest 
and  virtuous  Clarke,2  the  persevering  and  disinterested 
envoy,  who,  during  a  twelve  years'  mission,  had  sus- 
tained himself  by  his  own  exertions  and  a  mortgage 
on  his  estate ;  whose  whole  life  was  a  continued 
1676.  exercise  of  benevolence,  and  who,  at  his  death,  he- 


i  MS.  Record,  Vote  3,  4,  and  6.  His  enemies  in  Massachusetts  dis 

8  On  Clarke,  see  Backus,  i.  440 ;  liked  his  principles  and  his  success  ; 

Allen's  Biog.  Diet     The  charge  of  they  respected  his  fidelity  and  his 

"baseness"  in  Grahame,  i.  315,  is  blameless  character.      Gruhame  is 

an   unwarranted    misapprehension,  usually  very  candid  in  his  judgments 


FREED6M   OF   CONSCIENCE   IN   RHODE   ISLAND.  66 

queathed  all  his  possessions  for  the  relief  of  the  needy,  CHAP 
and  the  education  of  the  young.     Others  have  sought  —v-^. 
office  to  advance  their  fortunes;  he,  like  Roger  Wil-  1663. 
liams,  parted  with  his  little  means  for  the  public  good. 
He  had  powerful  enemies  in  Massachusetts,  and  left  a 
name  without  a  spot. 

It  requires  but  small  acquaintance  with  authors  to  dis- 
cover those  who  bestow  praise  grudgingly,  even  where 
most  deserved.  Men  of  letters  have  the  passions  and 
frailties  of  human  nature,  and  display  them  in  their 
writings  ;  and  there  are  not  wanting  historical  inquirers 
who  are  swayed  by  some  latent  motive  of  party  to 
impair  the  merits  of  the  illustrious  dead,  and  envy  the 
reputation  of  states.  The  laws  of  Rhode  Island, 
which  had  been  repeatedly  revised  by  committees, 
were  not  published  till  after,  not  only  the  revolution  of 
1688,  but  the  excitements  consequent  on  the  Hano- 
verian succession ;  and  we  find  in  the  oldest  printed 
copy  now  extant,1  that  Roman  Catholics  were  excepted 
from  the  enjoyment  of  freedom  of  conscience.  The 
exception  was  not  the  act  of  the  people  of  Rhode  » 
Island  ;  nor  do  the  public  records  indicate  what  com- 
mittee of  revisal  made  the  alteration,  for  which  the 
occasion  grew  out  of  English  politics.  The  exception 
was  harmless,  for  there  were  no  Roman  Catholics  in 
the  colony.  When,  in  the  war  for  independence, 
French  ships  arrived  in  the  harbors  of  Rhode  Island, 
the  inconsistent  exception  was  immediately  erased  by 
the  legislature.  There  have  been  those,  who,  arguing 
plausibly  from  the  printed  copy,  have  referred  this 
exception  to  the  first  general  assembly  that  met  at 
Newport  after  the  patent  arrived.  I  have  carefully 

1  I  have  seen  none  older  than  the  edition  of  1744 
VOL.  II.  9 


66  RHODE  ISLAND. 

CHAP,  examined  the  records,  and  find  that  the  people  oi 
•— *^-  Rhode  Island,  on  accepting  their  charter,  affirmed  the 
great  principle  of  intellectual  liberty  in  its  widest 
1664  sc°Pe*  The  first  assembly1  did  little  more  than 
Mar.  organize  the  government  anew,  and  repeal  all  laws 
inconsistent  with  the  charter — a  repeal  which  precludes 
the  possibility  of  the  disfranchising  of  Roman  Catholics. 
In  May,  the  regular  session  was  held,  and  religious 
freedom  was  established  in  the  very  words  of  the 
charter.2  The  broad  terms  embrace  not  Roman 
Catholics  merely,  but  men  of  every  creed.  "  No  per- 
son shall  at  any  time  hereafter  be  any  ways  called  in 
question  for  any  difference  of  opinion  in  matters  of 
religion."  As  if  to  preserve  a  record  that  should  refute 
the  calumny,  in  May,  1665,  the  legislature  asserted  that 
"  liberty  to  all  persons,  as  to  the  worship  of  God,  had 
been  a  principle  maintained  in  the  colony  from  the 
very  beginning  thereof ;  and  it  was  much  in  their  hearts 
to  preserve  the  same  liberty  forever." 3  Nor  does  this 
rest  on  their  own  testimony  in  their  own  favor.  The 
commissioners  from  England,  who  visited  Rhode  Island, 
reported  of  its  people,  "  They  allow  liberty  of  conscience 
to  all  who  live  civilly;  they  admit  of  all  religions."4 
And  again,  in  1680,  the  government  of  the  colony  could 
say,  what  there  was  no  one  oppressed  individual  to 
controvert,  "  We  leave  every  man  to  walk  as  God 
persuades  his  heart ;  all  our  people  enjoy  freedom  of 
conscience." 5  Freedom  of  conscience,  unlimited  free- 


1  This   appears  from  the  R.  I.  mere,  276;  Douglass,  ii.  83.  104; 
Records,  Mamh,  1663-4.  British  Dom.  in  America,  ii.  252 ; 

2  Records.     If  Roman  Catholics  Brit  Empire,  ii.  148  ;   Holmes,  &c, 
were  disfranchised  (which  they  were  &c.  &c.  are  all  but  forms  of  the  one 
not)  in  March.  1663-4,  that  disfran-  single  authority  in  the  printed  ,awa 
chisement  endured  only  two  months,  of  Rhode  Island. 

Compare  Eddy,  in  Walsh's  Appeal,  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xvii.  98. 

429,  &c.;  and  Bull,    in  the   R.  I.  •»  Hutch.  Coll.  413.  415. 

Republican  for  Jan.  15.1834.— Chal-  5  Chalmers,  284. 


RHODE   ISLAND  67 

dom  of  mind,  was,  from  the  first,  the  trophy  of  the  CHAP 

•  ^I- 

Baptists.  ~-v-w 

What  more  shall  we  relate  of  Rhode  Island  in  this  1664 
early  period  ?  That  it  invented  a  new  mode  of  voting, 
since  each  freeman  was  obliged  to  subscribe  his  name 
on  the  outside  of  his  ballot  ?  that,  for  a  season,  it 
divided  its  general  assembly  into  two  houses — a  change  16€S 
which,  near  the  close  of  the  century,  was  permanently 
adopted  ?  that  it  ordered  the  towns  to  pay  the  depu- 
ties three  shillings  a  day  for  their  legislative  services  ? 
that  it  was  importuned  by  Plymouth,  and  vexed  by 
Connecticut,  on  the  subject  of  boundaries?  that, 
asking  commercial  immunities,  it  recounted  to  Claren- 
don the  merits  of  its  bay,  "  in  very  deed  the  most 
excellent  in  New  England  ;  having  harbors  safe  for 
the  biggest  ships  that  ever  sayled  the  sea,  and  open 
when  others  at  the  east  and  west  are  locked  up  with 
stony  doors  of  ice  "  ?  It  is  a  more  interesting  question, 
if  the  rights  of  conscience  and  the  freedom  of  mind 
were  strictly  respected. 

There  have  not  been  wanting  those  who  have  charged 
Rhode  Island  with  persecuting  the  Quakers.  The 
calumny  has  not  even  a  plausible  foundation.  The 
royal  commissioners,  in  1665,  less  charitable  than  the 
charter,  required  the  oath  of  allegiance ;  the  general 
assembly,  scrupulous  in  its  respect  for  the  rights  of 
conscience,  would  listen  to  no  proposition  except  for  an 
engagement  of  fidelity,  and  due  obedience  to  the  laws. 
To  refuse  the  engagement  was  to  forfeit  the  elective 
franchise.  Could  a  milder  course  have  been  proposed  ? 
When,  by  experience,  this  engagement  was  found  irk- 
some to  the  Quakers,  it  was  the  next  year  repealed.1 

1  Brinley,  in  Mass.  Hist  Coll.  v.     in  reply,  Eddy  in  Mass.  Hist  Coll. 
816— 220 ;  Holmes,!. 341.  Compare,    xvii.  97;  Knowles,  324,  325. 


68  VIRGINIA  AND  CHARLES  II. 

CHAP.  Once,  indeed,  Rhode  Island  was  betrayed  into 
— •— *  inconsistency.  There  had  been  great  difficulties  in 
collecting  taxes,  and  towns  had  refused  to  pay  their 
rates.  In  1671,  the  general  assembly  passed  a  law, 
inflicting  a  severe  penalty  on  any  one  who  should 
speak  in  town-meeting  against  the  payment  of  the 
assessments.  The  law  lost  to  its  advocates  their 
1 673.  reelection  ;  in  the  next  year,  the  magistrates  were 
selected  from  the  people  called  Quakers,  and  freedom 
of  debate  was  restored.  George  Fox  himself  was 
present  among  his  Friends,  demanding  a  double  dili- 
gence in  "  guards  against  oppression,"  and  in  the 
firm  support  "of  the  good  of  the  people."  The  instruc- 
tion of  "  all  the  people  in  their  rights,"  he  esteemed 
the  creative  power  of  good  in  the  colony ;  and  he  adds, — 
for  in  his  view  Christianity  established  political  equality, 
— "  You  are  the  unworthiest  men  upon  the  earth,  if  you 
do  lose  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made  you 
free  in  life  and  glory."1 

For  Maryland,  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  was  the 
restoration  of  its  proprietary.     Virginia  possessed  far 

stronger  claims  for  favor  than  Rhode  Island  and  Con- 
1661. 
April  necticut ;  and  Sir  William  Berkeley  himself  embarked 

for  England  as  the  agent  of  the  colony.  But  Virginia 
was  unhappy  alike  in  the  agent  whom  she  selected 
and  in  the  object  of  her  pursuit.  Berkeley  was  eager 

1  The  leading  printed  authorities  431,  &c.    Let  me  not  forget  to  adJ 

for  early  Rhode  Island  history,  are  the  reprints  from  the  Records,  and 

Calender's  Century  Sermon,  Back-  the  Commentaries  of  Henry  Bull, 

us's   History  of  the   Baptists,  and  of  Newport.  Besides  printed  works, 

Knowles's   Roger  Williams.     The  I  have  large  MS.  materials,  which 

Mass.  Hist  Coll.  contain  many  use-  I  collected  in  part  from  the  public 

fill  documents,  too   various   to   be  offices  in  Rhode  Island.     I  am  es 

specially  cited.     Our  Rhode  Island  pecially   indebted    to  William   R. 

Historical    Society   has   published  Staples,  who,  with  singular  liberali 

five   valuable  volumes.    Hopkins's  ty,  intrusted  to  me  the  MS.  collec- 

History  of  Providence  is  not  accu-  tions  which  he  has  been  gathering 

rate ;  it  is  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  for  years.     Such  kindness  demands 

Compare,    also,    Walsh's    Appeal,  my  gratitude. 


PRODIGALITY   OF   CHARLES   II.  69 

in  the  advancement  of  his  own  interests  ;  and  Virginia  CHAP. 
desiied  relief  from  the  pressure  of  the  navigation  act,1  — -^ 
which  Charles  II.  had  so  recently  ratified.     Relief  was 
impossible  ;  for  it  was  beyond  the  prerogative  of  the 
king,  and  lay  only  within  the   power  of  parliament. 
Virginia  received  no  charter,  nor  any  guaranty  for  her 
established  constitution,  except  in  the  instructions  to 
her  governor.     The  confidence  of  loyalty  was  doomed 
to  suffer  heavy  retribution ;  and  to  satisfy  the  greedi- 
ness of  favorite  courtiers,  Virginia  was  dismembered  by  1669 
lavish  grants,  till  at  last  the  whole  colony  was  given 
away  for  a  generation,  as  recklessly  as  a  man  would  1673 
give  away  a  life-estate  in  a  farm. 

Meantime  Sir  William  Berkeley  made  use  of  his 
presence  in  England  for  his  own  account,  and  set  the 
example  of  narrowing  the  limits  of  the  province  for 
which  he  acted,  by  embarking  with  Clarendon  and  six  1663 
other  principal  courtiers  and  statesmen  of  that  day,  in 
an  immense  speculation  in  lands.  Berkeley,  being 
about  to  return  to  America,  was  perhaps  esteemed  a 
convenient  instrument.  King  Charles  was  caricatured 
in  Holland,  with  a  woman  on  each  arm,  and  courtiers 
picking  his  pocket.  This  time  they  took  whole  prov- 
inces ;  the  territory  which  they  obtained,  if  divided 
among  the  eight,  had  given  to  each  a  tract  as  extensive 
as  the  kingdom  of  France. 

To  complete  the  picture  of  the  territorial  changes 
made    by  Charles    II.,  it  remains  to  be  added,  that, 
having  given  away  the  whole  south,  he  enfeoffed  his 
brother  with  the  country  between  Pemaquid  and  the  St.  166  I 
Croix.      The  proprietary  rights  to  New  Hampshire  and  1677 

1  Albany  Records,  xviii.  158.  In  effected  very  little  io  favor  of  the 
reply,  tne  Dutch  W.  I.  C.,  July  15,  English  Virginians."  Records, 
1602,  "Gov.  Berkeley  has  as  yet  xviii.  197 


70  PRODIGALITY   OF  CHARLES  II. 

CHAP.  Maine  were  revived,  with  the  intent  to  purchase  theiu 

— -^  for  the  duke  of  Monmouth.  The  fine  country  from 
Connecticut  River  to  Delaware  Bay,  tenanted  by 

1664.  nearly  ten  thousand  souls,  in  spite  of  the  charter  to 
Winthrop,  and  the  possession  of  the  Dutch,  was,  like 
part  of  Maine,  given  to  the  duke  of  York.  The 
Charter  which  secured  a  large  and  fertile  province  to 

1081.  William  Penn,  and  thus  invested  philanthropy  with 
executive  power  on  the  western  bank  of  the  Delaware, 
was  a  grant  from  Charles  II.  After  Philip's  war  in 

1679.  New  England,  Mount  Hope  was  hardly  rescued  from  a 
courtier,  then  famous  as  the  author  of  two  indifferent 
comedies.  The  grant  of  Nova  Scotia  to  Sir  Thomas 
Temple  was  not  revoked,  while,  with  the  inconsistency 

1667.  of  ignorance,  Acadia,  with  indefinite  boundaries,  was 
restored  to  the  French.  From  the  outer  cape  of  Nova 
Scotia  to  Florida,  with  few  exceptions,  the  tenure  of 
every  territory  was  changed.  Nay,  further,  the  trade 
with  Africa,  the  link  in  the  chain  of  universal  com- 
merce, that  first  joined  Europe,  Asia,  and  America 
together,  and  united  the  Caucasian,  the  Malay,  and 
the  Ethiopian  races  in  indissoluble  bonds,  was  given 
away  to  a  company,  which  alone  had  the  right  of 
planting  on  the  African  coast.  The  frozen  zone  itself 
was  invaded,  and  Prince  Rupert  and  his  associates 

1669  were  endowed  with  a  monopoly  of  the  regions  on 
Hudson's  Bay. 

During  the  first  four  years  of  his  power,  Charles  II. 
gave  away  a  large  part  of  a  continent.  Could  he  have 
continued  as  lavish,  in  the  course  of  his  reign  he  would 
have  given  away  the  world. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

MASSACHUSETTS  AND   CHARLES  II. 

MASSACHUSETTS  never  enjoyed  the  favor  of  the  re-  CHAP. 

XII 

stored  government.     The  virtual  independence  which  — -^- 
had  been  exercised  for  the  last  twenty  years,  was  too  166°- 
dear  to  be  hastily  relinquished.     The  news  of  the 
restoration,  brought  by  the  ships  in  which  Goffe  and 
Wh  alley  were  passengers,  was  received  with  skeptical    juiy 
anxiety ;  and  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  event.     At     27- 
the  session  of  the  general  court  in  October,  a  motion 
for  an  address  to  the  king  did  not  succeed ;  affairs  in 
England  were  still  regarded  as  unsettled.     At  last  it    Nov. 
became  certain  that  the  hereditary  family  of  kings 
had   recovered  its   authority,   and  that  swarms  of 
enemies  to  the  colony  had  gathered  round  the  new 
government ;    a  general   court   was   convened,   and    D 
addresses   were   prepared  for    the   parliament   and     19. 
the  monarch.     By  advice  of  the  great  majority  of 
elders,   no  judgment    was    expressed   on    the   exe- 
cution   of    Charles   I.,    and    "the    grievous   confu- 
sions" of  the  past.    The  colonists  appealed  to  the 


72  MASSACHUSETTS   ACKNOWLEDGES   CHARLES   II. 

CHAP,  king  of  England,1  as  "  a  king  who  had  seen  adversity, 
>-^v*~  and  who,  having  himself  been  an  exile,  knew  the 
1660.  hearts  of  exiles."  They  prayed  for  "  the  continuance 
of  civil  and  religious  liberties,"  and  requested  against 
complaints  an  opportunity  of  defence.  "  Let  not  the 
king  hear  men's  words," — such  was  their  petition ; — 
"  your  servants  are  true  men,  fearing  God  and  the 
king.  We  could  not  live  without  the  public  worship 
of  God  ;  that  we  might,  therefore,  enjoy  divine  worship 
without  human  mixtures,  we,  not  without  tears,  de- 
•  parted  from  our  country,  kindred,  and  fathers'  houses. 
Our  garments  are  become  old  by  reason  of  the  very 
long  journey ;  ourselves,  who  came  away  in  our 
strength,  are,  many  of  us,  become  gray-headed,  and 
some  of  us  stooping  for  age."  In  return  for  the  protec- 
tion of  their  liberties,  they  promise  the  blessing  of  a 
people  whose  trust  is  in  God. 

Dec.  At  the  same  time,  Leverett,  the  agent  of  the  colony, 
'  was  instructed  to  make  interest  in  its  behalf  with 
members  of  parliament  and  the  privy  council ;  to  inter- 
cede for  its  chartered  liberties ;  to  resist  appeals  to 
England,  alike  in  cases  civil  or  criminal.  Some  hope 
was  entertained  that  the  new  government  might  be 
propitious  to  New  England  commerce,  and  renew  the 
favors  which  the  Long  Parliament  had  conceded.  But 
the  navigation  act  had  just  been  passed  ;  and  Massa- 
chusetts never  gained  an  exemption  from  its  severity 
till  she  ceased  to  demand  it  as  a  favor. 

Meantime  a  treatise,  which  Eliot,  the  benevolent 
apostle  of  the  Indians, — the  same  who  had  claimed  for 
the  people  a  voice  even  in  making  treaties, — had  pub- 
lished in  defence  of  the  unmixed  principles  of  popular 

1  Hutch.  ColL  325—329. 


ELIOT. 


DECLARATION   OF  RIGHTS.  73 

freedom,  was  condemned,  as  too  full  of  the  seditious  CHAP. 

XII. 

doctrines   of  democratic    liberty ;    the    single-minded  -~-v~L 
author  did  not  hesitate  to  suppress  his  book  on  "the  I661 
Christian  Commonwealth,"  and  in  guarded  language     18. 
to  acknowledge  the  form  of  government  by  king,  lords, 
nnd  commons,  as  not  only  lawful,  but  eminent.1 

A   general  expression  of  good  will  from  the  king,    Feb. 
could    not  quiet  the   apprehensions  of  the  colonists. 
The  committee  for  the    plantations   had  already  sur-  April 
mised  that  Massachusetts  would,  if  it  dared,  cast  off 
its  allegiance,  and  resort  to  an  alliance  with  Spain,  or 
to  any  desperate  remedy,  rather  than  admit  of  appeals 
to  England.     Upon  this  subject  a  controversy  imme- 
diately arose  ;    and  the  royal  government  resolved  to 
establish  the  principle  which  the  Long  Parliament  had 
waived. 

It  was  therefore  not  without  reason,  that  the  colony 
foreboded  collision  with  the  crown ;  and  after  a  full 
report  from  a  numerous  committee,  of  which  Brad- 
street,  Hawthorne,  Mather,  and  Norton,  were  members,  May 
the  general  court  published  a  declaration  of  natural 
and  chartered  rights. 

Their  liberties  under  God  and  their  patent  they  Jun« 
declare  to  be,  "to  choose  their  own  governor,  deputy- 
governor,  and  representatives  ;  to  admit  freemen  on 
terms  to  be  prescribed  at  their  own  pleasure ;  to  set 
up  all  sorts  of  officers,  superior  and  inferior,  and  point 
out  their  power  and  places  ;  to  exercise,  by  their  annu- 
ally-elected magistrates  and  deputies,  all  power  and 
authority,  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial ;  to  defend 
themselves  by  force  of  arms  against  every  aggression  ; 
and  to  reject,  as  an  infringement  of  their  right,  any 

1  Hutchinson,  i.  195. 
VOL    II.  10 


74  FORMATION  OF  PERMANENT  POLITICAL   PARTIES. 

CHAP,  parliamentary  or  royal  imposition,   prejudicial    to  the 

-^~  country,  and  contrary  to  any  just  act  of  colonial  legis- 

1661   lation."     The  duties  of  allegiance  were  narrowed  to  a 

few  points,  which  conferred  neither  profit  nor  substan 

tial  power  on  the  mother  country  or  its  sovereign. 

Thus  the  Puritan  commonwealth  joined  issue  with 
the  king,  by  denying  the  right  of  appeal,  and  with  the 
parliament,  by  declaring  the  navigation  act  an  infringe- 
ment of  chartered  rights.  It  was  not  till  these  long 
and  careful  preparations  had  been  completed,  that, 

JkMEi 

7.  more  than  a  year  after  his  restoration,  Charles  II.  was 
acknowledged  by  public  proclamation.  We  have  seen 
how  England  welcomed  his  return ;  the  magistrates  of 
Massachusetts  permitted  no  man  to  drink  the  king's 
health.  A  few  formalities  were  coldly  observed.  The 
day  that  saw  monarchy  renewed  on  this  side  the  At- 
lantic, was  not  esteemed  a  day  of  rejoicing. 

The  young  republic  had  continued  the  exercise  of  its 
government  as  of  right;  complaints  against  her  had 
multiplied ;  and  her  own  interests,  seconding  the  ex- 
press orders  of  the  monarch,  induced  her  to  send 
envoys  to  London.  The  country  was  divided  in 
opinion;  the  large  majority  insisted  on  sustaining, 
with  the  charter,  an  independent  administration  in 
undiminished  force ;  others  were  willing  to  make 

3L*  such  concessions  as  would  satisfy  the  ministry  of 
Clarendon.  The  first  party  held  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment, and  John  Norton,  an  accomplished  scholar  and 
rigid  Puritan,  yet  a  friend  to  moderate  counsels, 
was  joined  with  the  excellent  Simon  Bradstreet  in 
1662.  the  commission  for  England.  They  were  instruct- 

24     ed    to    persuade   the    king   of   the    confiding  loyalty 


FORMATION   OF   PERMANENT   POLITICAL   PARTIES.  75 

jf  Massachusetts,   and  yet  to  suffer  no  appeals  from  CHAP 
the  colony  to  his  clemency  or  his  consideration  ;  to  — ~**~ 
propitiate  the  monarch,  and  yet  to  save  the  independ-  1662 
ence  of  the  country.     Conscious  that  they  were  sent 
on  an  impossible  mission,  the  envoys  embarked  with    Feb 
groat   reluctance.      Letters  were   at  the    same    time 
transmitted  to  those  of  the  English  statesmen  on  whose 
friendship  it  was  safe  to  rely.1 

Whatever  might  have  been  the  secret  wishes  or  in- 
tentions in  England,  King  Charles,  aware  of  the  spirit 
of  the  colonists,  conscious  of  his  own  poverty  and 
weakness,  and  ignorant  of  the  numbers  and  strength 
of  Massachusetts,  received  the  messengers  with  cour 
tesy ;  and  they  returned  in  the  fall  with  the  royal 
answer,  which  probably  originated  with  Clarendon. 
A  confirmation  of  the  charter  was  granted,  and  an 
amnesty  of  all  offences  during  the  late  troubles,  was 
conditionally  promised.  But  the  king  asserted  his 
right  to  interfere  in  the  domestic  concerns  of  the 
colony;  he  demanded  a  repeal  of  all  laws  derogatory 
to  his  authority  ;  the  administration  of  the  oath  of 
allegiance  ;  the  administration  of  justice  in  his  name  ; 
the  complete  toleration  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  and 
a  concession  of  the  elective  franchise  to  every  inhabitant 
possessing  a  competent  estate. 

These  requisitions  seemed  not  wholly  unreasonable 
in  themselves  ;  the  people  of  Massachusetts  regarded, 
not  so  much  the  nature  of  the  requisitions,  as  of  the 
jiower  which  made  the  demand.  The  principle  seemed 
to  give  to  the  monarch  a  virtual  negative  on  their  acts^ 
and  a  power  of  reversing  the  judgments  of  their  courts 
The  question  of  obedience  was  a  question  of  liberty, 
and  gave  birth  to  the  parties  of  prerogative  and  of 

1  Hutch.  Coll.  344—371. 


76  MASSACHUSETTS   REFUSES   TO  YIELD. 

J:HAP.  freedom.     Such  is  the  origin  of  the  parties  which  con- 
-^-  tinued  to  divide  Massachusetts  till  the  establishment 
of  actual  independence. 

The  character  of  the  times  connected  religious  in 
tolerance  with  the  contest.  Episcopacy  and  monarch}' 
•were  feared  as  natural  allies :  Anabaptists,  also,  were 
royalists  ;  they  had  appeared  before  the  ministry  in 
England  as  plaintiffs  against  Massachusetts,  and  could 
boast  of  the  special  favor  of  Charles  II.  The  princi- 
ples of  an  enlightened  toleration  had  been  so  rapidly 
gaining  ground,  that  they  had  repeatedly  possessed  a 
majority  in  one  branch  of  the  legislature  ;  but,  now 
that  Massachusetts  was  compelled  to  resume  its  oppo- 
sition to  monarchy,  a  censorship  over  the  press  was 
established  ;  and  the  distrust  of  all  dissension  from  the 
established  forms  of  dissent,  awakened  once  more  the 
energies  of  religious  bigotry.  The  representatives  of 
Massachusetts,  instead  of  complying  with  the  wishes 
of  the  king,  resolved  only  on  measures  conducive  "  to 
the  glory  of  God,  and  to  the  felicity  of  his  people ;  " 
that  is,  to  a  continuance  of  their  religious  institutions, 
and  their  democratic  independence. 

1063  Meantime  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  not 
ignorant  how  great  dangers  they  incurred  by  refusing 
to  comply  with  the  demand  of  their  sovereign.1  False 
rumors  were  mingled  with  true  reports,  and  assisted 
to  incense  the  court  at  St.  James.  Whalley  and  GofFe, 
it  was  currently  asserted,  were  at  the  head  of  an  army;9 
the  union  of  the  four  New  England  colonies  was  be- 
lieved to  have  had  its  origin  in  the  exj  ress  "  purpose 
of  throwing  off  dependence  on  England."3  Sir 
Thomas  Temple,  Cromwell's  Governor  of  Acadia,  had 

1  Chalmers,  38G  3  MS.  letter  of  commiseionera  to 

*  MS.  letter  of  Sir  T.  Temple.      T.  Prince,  of  Plymouth. 


APPOINTMENT  OF   ROYAL   COMMISSIONERS   FOR   N     E  77 

resided  for  years  in  New  England,  and  now  appeared  CHAP 
as  their  advocate.     "  I  assure  you" — such  was  Claren-  — v-i. 
don's  message  to  Massachusetts — "  of  my  true  love  and  1663 
friendship  to  your  country ;  neither  in  your  privileges, 
charter,  government,  nor  church  discipline,  shall  you 
receive   any  prejudice."1      Yet   the   news  was  soon, 
spread  abroad,  that  commissioners  would  be  appointed 
to  regulate  the  affairs  of  New  England ;  and  at  length 
there   was   room    to    believe    that   they   had   already  If 64 
embarked,  and  that  ships  of  war  would  soon  anchor  in 
the  harbor  of  Boston.2 

Precautionary  measures  were  promptly  adopted. 
The  patent  was  delivered  to  a  committee  of  four,  by 
whom  it  was  to  be  kept  safely  and  secretly  for  the 
country.  To  guard  against  danger  from  an  armed 
force,  officers  and  soldiers  were  forbidden  to  land  from 
ships,  except  in  small  parties  ;  and  strict  obedience  to 
the  laws  of  Massachusetts  was  required  from  them. 
In  conformity  to  former  usage,  a  day  of  fasting  and 
prayer  was  appointed.  The  usage  has  been  ridiculed. 
That  age  was  an  age  of  religious  faith ;  every  man 
was  required  to  attend  public  worship.  Not  an  indi- 
vidual, but  the  sick,  was  ordinarily  absent ;  for,  in  those 
days,  the  mother  took  with  her  the  nursling  whom  she 
could  not  leave.  To  appoint  a  day  of  fasting  on  a 
special  occasion,  was  to  call  together,  in  their  respective 
assemblies,  every  individual  of  the  colony,  and  to 
engage  the  attention  of  the  whole  people  to  a  single 
subject,  under  the  sanction  of  the  invisible  presence  of 
God.  No  mode  of  diffusing  intelligence  could  equal 

1  Temple's  MS.  letter.  lating    to  this    period  in  Hazard 

2  The  chief  authorities  are  Hutch-  Copious  abstracts  from  the  Records, 
inson's  Hist  i.e.  ii.  and  Appendix;  and  from  the  MS.  State  Papers  ot 
Hutch.  Coll.;  Danforth  Papers,  in  Massachusetts,    have     been     most 
Mass.  Hist  Coll.  xviii. ;  Chalmers,  liberally   furnished    me    by    J.   R 
c.  xvi.    There  are  many  papers  re-  Felt 


78  REMONSTRANCE  OF  THE  COLONISTS. 

CHAP  this,  which    reached    every  man's   ear.      The    whole 

^^  public   mind   thus   became  excited,  and   its  decisions 

1664    known. 

July  At  length  the  fleet,  equipped  for  the  reduction  of 
the  Dutch  settlements  on  the  Hudson,  arrived  at  Bos- 
ton, bearing  commissioners  hostile  to  colonial  liberties, 
and  charged  to  investigate  the  manner  in  which  the 
charters  of  New  England  had  been  exercised,  "  with 
full  authority  to  provide  for  the  peace  of  the  country, 
according  to  the  royal  instructions,  and  their  own  dis- 
cretion." 

No  exertion  of  power  was  immediately  attempted , 
but  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  from  the  first,  descried 
the  approach  of  tyranny.  They  feared  discretion. 
They  would  never  trust  it  to  their  own  magistrates  ; 
and  should  they  now  submit  to  the  discretion  of 
strangers  and  enemies  ?  The  general  court  assembled 
to  meet  the  danger ;  and  measures  of  redress  and  pre 
vention  were  devised. 

It  was  agreed  to  levy  two  hundred  men  for  the 
expected  war  against  the  Dutch  ;  and  this  was  done, 
although  the  services  of  the  men  were  never  required. 
But  the  commission  was  considered  a  flagrant  viola 
tion  of  chartered  rights.  The  inhabitants  of  Massa- 
chusetts had  already  adopted  views  which  are  now 
a  part  of  the  public  opinion  of  the  country,  but  which 
are  not  yet  received  into  the  system  of  international 
law.  In  regard  to  the  obedience  due  to  a  government, 
they  distinguished  between  natural  obedience  and 
voluntary  subjection.  The  child  born  on  the  soil  of 
England,  is  necessarily  an  English  subject ;  but  they 
held  to  the  original  right  of  expatriation  ;  that  every 
man  may  withdraw  from  the  land  of  his  birth,  and 
renounce  all  duty  of  allegiance  with  all  claim  to  pro- 


REMONSTRANCE   OF   THE   COLONISTS.  79 

lection.     This  they  themselves  had  done.     Remaining  CHAP 

XII. 

in  England,  they  acknowledged  the  obligatory  force  of  -^-' 
established  law ;  because  those  laws  were  intolerable, 
they  had  emigrated  to  a  new  world,  where  they  could 
all  have  organized  their  government,  as  many  of  them 
originally  did,  on  the  basis  of  natural  rights,  and  of 
perfect  independence. 

But  it  had  seemed  good  to  them  to  retain  their  con- 
nection with  England ;  this  connection  they  held  to 
be  purely  voluntary  ;  originally  and  solely  established, 
and  therefore  exclusively  defined,  by  the  charter,  which 
was  the  instrument  of  that  voluntary  subjection,  and 
the  only  existing  compact  connecting  them  with  Eng- 
land. The  right  of  England  to  the  soil,  under  the 
pretence  of  discovery,  they  derided  as  a  popish  doc- 
trine, derived  from  Alexander  VI. ;  and  they  pleaded, 
as  of  more  avail,  their  just  occupation,  and  their  pur- 
chase from  the  natives. 

Such  were  the  views  by  which  they  were  animated ; 
and,  as  the  establishment  of  a  commission  with  dis- 
cretionary powers  was  not  specially  sanctioned  by  their 
charter,  they  resolved  to  resist  the  orders  of  the  king, 
and  nullify  his  commission.  While,  therefore,  the  fleet 
was  engaged  in  reducing  New  York,  Massachusetts 
published  an  order  prohibiting  complaints  to  the  com-  Sept. 
missioners,  and,  preparing  a  remonstrance,  not  against  10* 
deeds  of  tyranny,  but  the  menace  of  tyranny — not 
against  actual  wrong,  but  against  a  principle  of  wrong 
— thus  addressed  King  Charles  II. : —  ^ 

"  Dread  Sovereign — The  first  undertakers  of  this 
plantation  did  obtain  a  patent,  wherein  is  granted  full 
and  absolute  power  of  governing  all  the  people  of  this 
place,  by  men  chosen  from  among  themselves,  and 
according  to  such  laws  as  they  should  see  meet  to 


80  REMONSTRANCE  OF  THE  COLONISTS. 

CHAP  establish.     A  royal  donation,  under  the  great  seal,  is 
—  -v^~  the  greatest  security  that  may  be  had  in  human  affairs. 


tne  encouragement  and  security  of  the  royal 
25.  charter,  this  people  did,  at  their  own  charges,  transport 
themselves,  their  wives  and  families,  over  the  ocean, 
purchase  the  land  of  the  natives,  and  plant  this  colony, 
with  great  labor,  hazards,  cost,  and  difficulties  ;  for  a 
long  time  wrestling  with  the  wants  of  a  wilderness, 
and  the  burdens  of  a  new  plantation  ;  having  also,  now 
above  thirty  years,  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  GOVERN- 
MENT WITHIN  THEMSELVES,  as  their  undoubted  right  in 
the  sight  of  God  and  man.  To  be  governed  by  rulers 
of  our  own  choosing  and  lawes  of  our  own,  is  the  fun- 
damental privilege  of  our  patent. 

"  A  commission  under  the  great  seal,  wherein  four 
persons  (one  of  them  our  professed  enemy)  are  im- 
powered  to  receive  and  determine  all  complaints  and 
appeals  according  to  their  discretion,  subjects  us  to  the 
arbitrary  power  of  strangers,  and  will  end  in  the  sub- 
version of  our  all. 

"  If  these  things  go  on,  your  subjects  here  will  either 
be  forced  to  seeke  new  dwellings,  or  sink  under  in- 
tolerable burdens.  The  vigor  of  all  new  endeavors 
will  be  enfeebled  ;  the  king  himself  will  be  a  loser  of 
the  wonted  benefit  by  customs,  exported  and  imported 
from  hence  into  England,  and  this  hopeful  plantation 
will  in  the  issue  be  ruined. 

"  If  the  aime  should  be  to  gratify  some  particular 
gentlemen  by  livings  and  revenues  here,  that  will  also 
fail,  for  the  poverty  of  the  people.  If  all  the  charges 
of  the  whole  government  by  the  year  were  put  together, 
and  then  doubled  or  trebled,  it  would  not  be  counted 
for  one  of  those  gentlemen  a  considerable  accommoda- 
tion. To  a  coalition  in  this  course  the  people 


REMONSTRANCE   OF   THE   COLONISTS.  81 

never  come ;  and  it  will  be  hard  to  find  another  people  CHAP. 
that  will  stand  under  any  considerable  burden  in  this  ^-v^ 
country,  seeing  it  is  not  a  country  where  men  can  1*>64 
subsist  without  hard  labor  and  great  frugality.  25 

"  God  knows,  our  greatest  ambition  is  to  live  a  quiet 
life,  in  a  corner  of  the  world.  We  came  not  into  this 
wildernesse  to  seek  great  things  to  ourselves ;  and  if 
any  come  after  us  to  seeke  them  heere,  they  will  be 
disappointed.  We  keep  ourselves  within  our  line  ,  a 
just  dependence  upon,  and  subjection  to,  your  majestic, 
according  to  our  charter,  it  is  far  from  our  hearts  to 
disacknowledge.  We  would  gladly  do  any  thing 
within  our  power  to  purchase  the  continuance  of  your 
favorable  aspect.  But  it  is  a  great  unhappiness  to 
have  no  testimony  of  our  loyalty  offered  but  this,  to 
yield  up  our  liberties,  which  are  far  dearer  to  us  than 
our  lives,  and  which  we  have  willingly  ventured  our 
lives,  and  passed  through  many  deaths  to  obtain. 

"  It  was  Job's  excellency,  when  he  sat  as  king  among 
his  people,  that  he  was  a  father  to  the  poor.  A  poor 
people,  destitute  of  outward  favor,  wealth,  and  power, 
now  cry  unto  their  lord  the  king.  May  your  majestic 
regard  their  cause,  and  maintain  their  right ;  it  will 
stand  among  the  marks  of  lasting  honor  to  after  gen- 
erations." 

The  spirit  of  the  people  corresponded  with  this 
address.  Did  any  appear  to  pay  court  to  the  commis- 
sioners, they  became  objects  of  derision.  Even  the 
writing  to  the  king  and  chancellor  was  not  held  to  be 
a  duty ;  the  compact  by  the  charter  required  only  the 
payment  to  the  king  of  one  fifth  of  all  gold  and  silver 
ore ;  this  was  an  obligation  ;  any  notice  of  the  king 
beyond  this  was  only  by  way  of  civility.1  It  was  also 

i  Hutch.  Coll.  420. 
VOL.  II.  11 


82  FIRMNESS  OF  PUBLIC  OPINION. 

CHAP,  hoped  to  weary  the  English  government  by  a  tedious 

correspondence  ;  which  might  be  continued  till  a  new 

1664  revolution.  "For  who  knows,"  it  was  said,  "  but 
there  may  be  a  new  revolution  in  England  ?  "  It  is 
sometimes  difficult  to  distinguish  the  instinct  of  fanati- 
cism from  the  soundest  judgment ;  fanaticism  is  some- 
times of  the  keenest  sagacity.  There  were  many  in 
New  England  who  confidently  expected  a  revival  of 
liberty  after  the  restoration,  and  what  was  called  "  the 
slaying  of  the  witnesses."  "  Who  knows,"  it  was 
asked,  "  what  the  event  of  this  Dutch  war  will  be  ?  " 
The  establishment  of  arbitrary  power  would  bring 
arbitrary  taxation  in  its  train,  for  the  advantage  of 
greedy  courtiers.  A  report  was  spread,  that  Massa- 
chusetts was  to  yield  a  revenue  of  five  thousand  pounds 
yearly,  for  the  king.  Public  meetings  of  the  people 
were  held ;  the  brave  and  liberal  Hawthorne,  at  the 
head  of  a  company  of  train-bands,  made  a  speech 
which  royalists  deemed  "  seditious ;"  and  the  inflexible 
Endicott,  just  as  the  last  sands  of  life  were  running 
out,  addressed  the  people  at  their  meeting-house  in 
Boston.  Charles  II.  had  written  to  the  colony  against 
Endicott,  as  a  person  not  well  affected,  and  desired 
that  some  other  person  might  be  chosen  governor  in 
his  stead  ;  but  Endicott,  who  did  not  survive  till  the 
1 065.  day  °f  election,  retained  his  office  till  the  King  of 
M"-  Kings  summoned  him  from  the  world.  The  aged 
Davenport  was  equally  unbending.  "  The  commis- 
sion," said  he  from  New  Haven,  "  is  but  a  tryal  of  our 
courage  ;  the  Lord  will  be  with  his  people  while  they 
are  with  him.  If  you  consent  to  this  court  of  appeals, 
you  pluck  down  with  your  own  hands  the  house  which 
wisdom  has  built  for  you  and  your  posterity." 

The  elections  in  the  spring  of  1665  proceeded  with 


UNION   OF  HARTFORD   AND   NEW   HAVEN  83 

great  quiet ;  the  people  firmly  sustained  the  govern-  CHAP 
ment.     Meantime  letters  of  entreaty  had  been  sent  to  — -^L 
Robert  Boyle  and  the  earl  of  Manchester;  for,  from  *664 
the  days  of  Southampton  and  Sandys,  of  Warwick  and 
Say,  to  those  of  Burke  and  Chatham,  America  was  not 
entirely  destitute  of  friends  in  England.     But  none  of 
them  would  perceive  the  reasonableness  of  complaining 
against  an  abstract  principle.     "  We  are  all  amazed," 
wrote   Clarendon,  who,   says  Robert  Boyle,  was  no  1665 
enemy  to  Massachusetts  ;  "  you  demand  a  revocation 
of  the  commission,  without  charging  the  commissioners 
with   the   least   matter  of  crymes   or   exorbitances.'1 
Boyle  echoed  the  astonishment :  "  The  commissioners 
are  not  accused  of  one  harmful  thing,  even  in  your 
private  letters."     The  statesmen  of  that  day  in  Massa 
chusetts  were  more  wise,  and  understood  the  doctrine 
of  liberty  better  than  the  chancellor  of  England.     A 
century  later,  and  there  were  none  in  England  who 
did    not    esteem   the  commission  an  unconstitutional 
usurpation.1 

To  Connecticut,  the  controversy  of  Massachusetts  1664 
with  the  commissioners  was  fraught  with  beneficial 
results.  It  facilitated  the  entire  union  of  the  two 
colonies  of  Hartford  and  New  Haven ;  and,  as  the 
commissioners  were  desirous  to  make  friends  in  the 
other  colonies,  they  avoided  all  angry  collisions,  gave 
no  countenance  to  a  claim  advanced  by  the  duke  of 
Hamilton  to  a  large  tract  of  territory  in  the  colony , 
and,  in  arranging  the  limits  of  New  York,  though  the 
charter  of  Clarendon's  son-in-law  extended  to  the  River 
Connecticut,  they  established  the  boundary,  on  the 
main,  in  conformity  with  the  claims  of  Connecticut 
itself.  Long  Island  Went  to  the  duke  of  York.  Sat- 

1  Boyle,  in  Mass.  Hist  Coti.  xviii,    Chalmers. 


84  COMMISSIONERS  IN  PLYMOUTH. 

CHAP,  isfied  with  the  harmony  which  they  had  secured  by 

— ~  attempting  nothing  but  for  the  interests  of  the  colony, 

1664.  the  commissioners  saw  fit  to  praise  to  the   monarch 

"  the  dutifulness  and  obedience  of  Connecticut,"  which 

was  "set  off  with  the  more  lustre  by  the   contrary 

deportment  of  Massachusetts." 

We  shall  soon  have  occasion  to  narrate  the  events  in 
vvhich  Nichols  was  engaged  at  New  York,  where  he 
remained.  Carr,  Cartwright,  and  Maverick,  the  other 

•  p/i  c 

Feb.*  commissioners,  returning  to  Massachusetts,  desired  that, 
'  at  the  next  general  election  day,  the  whole  male  popu- 
lation might  be  assembled  in  Boston,  to  hear  the 
message  from  the  king.  The  absurd  proposal  was 
rejected.  "  He  that  will  not  attend  to  the  request," 
said  Cartwright,  "  is  a  traitor." 

The  nature  of  the  government  of  Rhode  Island,  its 
habitual  policy  of  relying  on  England  for  protection, 
secured  to  the  royal  agents  in  that  province  a  less 
unfavorable  reception.  Plymouth,1  the  weakest  colony 
of  all,  stood  firm  for  its  independence ;  although  the 
commissioners,  flattering  the  long-cherished  hopes  of 
the  inhabitants,  had  promised  them  a  charter  if  they 
would  but  set  an  example  of  compliance,  and  allow  the 
king  to  select  their  governor  from  among  three  candi- 
dates, whom  they  themselves  should  nominate.  The 
general  assembly,  after  due  consideration,  "  with  many 
thanks  to  the  commissioners,  and  great  protestations 
of  loyalty  to  the  king,"  "  chose  to  be  as  they  were." 
The  people  of  Plymouth  at  that  time  were  so  poor, 
"  they  could  not  maintain  scholars  to  their  ministers ;  " 
but  in  some  places  made  use  of  "  a  guifted  brother ; " 
but  the  brethren  were  as  "  guifted  "  in  the  nature  of 
liberty  as  in  religion. 

and  OiiviB.  310  Aw...  »nd  417.  &.«. 


COMMISSIONERS  IN   MASSACHUSETTS.  85 

If  Plymouth  could  not  be  blinded  by  the  dazzling  CHAP. 
prospect  of  a  charter,  there  was  no  room  to  expect  v—  v^- 


success  in  Massachusetts.     The  conference  between 

May 

the  two  parties  degenerated  into  an  altercation.  "  It 
is  insufferable,"  said  the  government,  "  that  the  colony 
should  be  brought  to  the  bar  of  a  tribunal  unknown  to 
its  charter."  At  length  it  was  directly  asked,  "  Do 
you  acknowledge  his  majesty's  commission  ?  "  The 
colony  declined  giving  a  direct  answer,  and  chose 
rather  to  plead  his  majesty's  charter.  19. 

Tired  of  discussion,  the  commissioners  resolved  to  May 
act  ;  and  declared  their  intention  of  holding  a  court  to 
decide  a  cause  in  which  the  colony  was  cited  to  appear 
as  defendant.  The  general  court  forbade  the  pro- 
cedure. The  commissioners  refused  to  recede  ;  the 
morning  for  the  trial  dawned  ;  the  parties  had  been 
summoned  ;  the  commissioners  were  preparing  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  cause,  when,  by  order  of  the  court,  a 
herald  stepped  forth,  and,  having  sounded  the  trumpet 
with  due  solemnity,  made  a  public  proclamation,  in  the 
name  of  the  king,  and  by  authority  of  the  charter, 
declaring  to  all  the  people  of  the  colony,  that,  in  observ- 
ance of  their  duty  to  God,  to  the  king,  and  to  their 
constituents,  the  general  court  could  not  suffer  any  to 
abet  his  majesty's  honorable  commissioners  in  their 
proceedings. 

Some  extraordinary  form  of  publicity  was  thought 
necessary,  to  give  validity  to  the  remonstrance.  The 
herald  sounded  the  trumpet  in  three  several  places,  and 
repeated  publicly  his  proclamation.  We  may  smile  at 
this  solitary  imitation  of  a  feudal  ceremony.  Yet 
when  had  the  voice  of  a  herald  proclaimed  the  approach 
of  so  momentous  a  contest  ?  It  was  not  merely  a 


86  COMMISSIONERS   IN   NEW   HAMPSHIRE  AND  MAINE. 

CHAP,  struggle  of  the  general  court  and  the  commissioners ; 

^v-L  nor  yet  of  Charles  II.  and  Massachusetts ;  it  was  a  still 

1665.  more  momentous  combat — the  dawning  strife  of  the 
new  system  against  the  old  system,  of  American  poli- 
tics against  European  politics. 

Mar        The   commissioners   could   only   wonder    that   the 

24.  ... 

arguments  of  the  king,  his  chancellor,  and  his  secretary, 
could  not  convince  the  government  of  Massachusetts. 
"  Since  you  will  misconstrue  our  endeavors,"  said  they, 
"  we  shall  not  lose  more  of  our  labors  upon  you ;  "  and 
so  they  retreated  to  the  north.  There  they  endeav- 
ored to  inquire  into  the  bounds  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Maine,  and  to  prepare  for  the  restoration  of  proprietary 
claims.  Massachusetts  was  again  equally  active  and 
fearless ;  its  governor  and  council  forbade  the  towns 
on  the  Piscataqua  to  meet,  or  in  any  thing  to  obey  the 
commission,  at  their  utmost  peril.1 

In  Maine,  the  temper  of  the  people  was  more  favor- 
able to  royalty ;  they  preferred  the  immediate  protec- 
tion of  the  king  to  an  incorporation  with  Massachusetts, 
or  a  subjection  to  the  heir  of  Gorges  ;  and  the  commis- 
sioners, setting  aside  the  officers  appointed  by  Massa- 
chusetts, and  neglecting  the  pretensions  of  Gorges, 
issued  commissions  to  persons  of  their  selection  to 
govern  the  district.  There  were  not  wanting  those 
who,  in  spite  of  threats,  openly  expressed  fears  of  "  the 
sad  contentions  "  that  would  follow,  and  acknowledged 
that  their  connection  with  Massachusetts  had  been 
favorable  to  their  prosperity.  Secure  in  the  support  of 
a  resolute  minority,  the  Puritan  commonwealth,  soon 
:  168-  after  the  departure  of  the  commissioners,  entered  the 
province,  and  again  established  its  authority  by  force 
of  arms.  Great  tumults  ensued ;  many  persons,  opposed 

1  Hutch.  ColL  419. 


THE   CONTEST  WTTH   CHARLES   II.   CONTINUES.  87 

to  what  seemed  a  usurpation,  were  punished  for  CHAP. 
"  irreverent  speeches ; "  some  even  reproached  the  ~~**L 
authorities  of  Massachusetts  "  as  traitors  and  rebels 
against  the  king ;  " l  but  the  usurpers  made  good  their 
ascendency  till  Gorges  recovered  his  claims  by  adjudi- 
cation in  England.  From  the  southern  limit  of  Massa- 
chusetts to  the  Kennebeck,  the  colonial  government 
maintained  its  independent  jurisdiction.  The  agents 
of  the  king  left  not  a  trace  of  their  presence.  Having 
been  recalled,  they  had  retired  in  angry  petulance, 
threatening  the  disloyal  with  retribution  and  the 
gallows. 

The  frowardness  of  Massachusetts  was  visited  by 
reproofs  from  the  English  monarch  ;  to  whom  it  was 
well  known  that  "  the  people  of  that  colony  affirmed, 
his  majesty  had  no  jurisdiction  over  them."  2  It  was 
resolved  to  transfer  the  scene  of  negotiations  to  Eng- 
land, where  Bellingham  and  Hawthorne  were,  by  a 
royal  mandate,  expressly  commanded,  on  their  alle-  April 
giance,  to  attend,  with  two  or  three  others,  whom  the 
magistrates  of  Massachusetts  were  to  appoint  as  their 
colleagues.  Till  the  final  decision  of  the  claims  of 
Gorges,  the  government  of  Maine  was  to  continue  as 
the  commissioners  had  left  it. 

The  general  court  was  to  execute  such  commands  as 
exceeded  the  powers  of  the  magistrates ;  the  general 
court  was  therefore  convened  to  consider  the  letter 
from  the  king.  The  morning  of  the  second  day  was 
spent  in  prayer;  six  elders  prayed.  The  next  day, 
after  a  lecture,  some  debate  was  had;  and  petitions, 
proposing  compliance  with  the  king,  were  afterwards 
forwarded  from  Boston,  Salem,  Ipswich,  and  Newbury. 

""  Extracts  from  records  commu-        a  Ilutchinson's   History,  i.  App. 
nicated  by  George  Folsom.  xix. 


88  THE   CONTEST  WITH  CHARLES  II.   CONTINUES. 

CHAP.  "  Let  some  regular  way  be  propounded  for  the  debate," 
— ~  said  Bellingham,  the  governor,  a  man  who  emphatically 
16G6.  hated  a  bribe. — "The  king's  prerogative  gives  him 
power  to  command  our  appearance,"  said  the  moderate 
Bradstreet ;  "  before  God  and  men  we  are  to  obey." 
— "  You  may  have  a  trial  at  law,"  insinuated  an  artful 
royalist;  "when  you  come  to  England,  you  may  insist 
upon  it  and  claim  it." — "  We  must  as  well  consider 
God's  displeasure  as  the  king's,"  retorted  Willoughby  ; 
"  the  interest  of  ourselves  and  of  God's  things,  as  his 
majesty's  prerogative  ;  for  our  liberties  are  of  concern- 
ment, and  to  be  regarded  as  to  the  preservation  ;  for 
if  the  king  may  send  for  me  now,  and  another  to- 
morrow, we  are  a  miserable  people." — "  Prerogative  is 
as  necessary  as  law,"  rejoined  the  royalist,  who  per- 
haps looked  to  the  English  court  as  an  avenue  to  dis- 
tinction.— "  Prerogative  is  not  above  law,"  said  the 
inflexible  Hawthorne,  ever  the  advocate  of  popular 
liberty.1  After  much  argument,  obedience  was 
refused.  "  We  have  already" — such  was  the  reply  of 
the  general  court — "  furnished  our  views  in  writing,  so 
that  the  ablest  persons  among  us  could  not  declare  our 
case  more  fully." 

This  decision  of  disobedience  was  made  at  a  time 
when  the  ambition  of  Louis  XIV.  of  France,  eager  to 
grasp  at  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and  united  with  De 
Witt  by  a  treaty  of  partition,  had,  in  consequence  of  his 
Dutch  alliance,  declared  war  against  England.  It  was 
on  this  occasion,  that  the  idea  of  the  conquest  of 
Canada  was  first  distinctly  proposed  to  New  England. 
It  was  proposed  only  to  be  rejected  as  impossible. 
"  A  land  march  of  four  hundred  miles,  over  rocky 
mountains  and  howling  deserts,"  was  too  terrible  an 

*  Mass.  Hist  Coll.  xviii.  98. 


DELIBERATIONS   OF   THE   PRIVY   COUNCIL.  89 

obstacle.     But  Boston  equipped  several  privateers,  and  CHAP 
not  without  success.1  -^^L 

At  the  same  time,  colonial  loyalty  did  not  content 
itself  with  barren  professions ;  it  sent  provisions  to  the 
English  fleet  in  the  West  Indies :  and  to  the  navy  in 

!('('(" 

England,  a  ship-load  of  masts ;  "  a  blessing,  mighty    j)6c. 
unexpected,  and  but  for  which,"  adds   Pepys,2  "  we      * 
must  have  failed  the  next  year." 

The  daring  defiance  of  Massachusetts  was  not  fol- 
lowed by  immediate  danger.  The  ministry  of  Claren- 
don was  fallen,  and  he  himself  was  become  an  exile ; 
and  profligate  libertines  had  not  only  gained  the  confi- 
dence of  the  king's  mistresses,  but  places  in  the  royal 
cabinet.  While  Charles  II.  was  dallying  with  women, 
and  robbing  the  theatre  of  actresses — while  the  licen- 
tious Buckingham,  who  had  succeeded  in  displacing 
Clarendon,  wasted  the  vigor  of  his  mind  and  body  by 
indulging  in  every  sensual  pleasure  "which  nature 
could  desire  or  wit  invent " — while  Louis  XIV.  was 
gaining  influence  in  the  English  cabinet,  by  bribing 
the  mistress  of  the  chief  of  the  king's  cabal — England 
remained  without  a  good  government,  and  the  colonies 
flourished  in  purity  and  peace.  The  English  ministry 
dared  not  interfere  with  Massachusetts ;  it  was  right 
that  the  stern  virtues  of  the  ascetic  republicans  should 
have  intimidated  the  members  of  the  profligate  cabinet. 
The  affairs  of  New  England  were  often  discussed  ;  but 
the  privy  council  was  overawed  by  the  moral  dignity 
which  they  could  not  comprehend.  There  were  great 
debates,  in  which  the  king3  took  part,  "in  what  style  1671 
to  write  to  New  England."  Charles  himself  com- 
mended  this  affair  more  expressly,  because  "  the  colony 

i  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xviii.  109.          «  Pepys,  i.  489.          3  Evelyn,  a.  343 
VOL.  II.  12 


90  DELIBERATIONS  OF  THE   PRIVY  COUNCIL. 

CHAP,  was  rich  and  strong;  able  to  contest  with  all  other  plan- 

XII. 

~-  v^~  tations  about  them  ;  "  "  there  is  fear,"  said  the  mon 
1671.  arch,  "of  their  breaking  from  all  dependence  on  this 
nation."     "  Some  of  the  council  proposed  a  menacing 
letter,  which  those  who  better  understood  the  peevish 
and  touchy  humor  of  that  colonie  were  utterly  against." 
June    After  many  days,  it  was  concluded,1  "  that,  if  any,  it 
should   be  only  a  conciliating  paper  at  first,  or  civil 
letter  ;  for  it  was  understood  they  were  a  people  almost 
upon  the  very  brink  of  renouncing   any  dependence 
upon  the  crown."     "  Information  of  the  present  face 
of  things  was  desired,"  and  Cartwright,  one  of  the 
commissioners,  was  summoned  before  the  council,  to 
June   give  "  a  relation  of  that  country  ;  "  2  but  such  was  the 
21t    picture  that  he  drew,  the  council  were  more  intimi- 
dated than  ever,  so  that  nothing  was  recommended 
beyond  "  a  letter  of  amnesty."     By  degrees,  it  was 


proposed  to  send  a  deputy  to  New  England,  under  the 
pretext  of  adjusting  boundaries,  but  "  with  secret  in- 
structions to  inform  the  council  of  the  condition  of  New 
England  ;  and  whether  they  were  of  such  power  as  to 
be  able  to  resist  his  majesty,  and  declare  for  themselves, 
as  independent  of  the  crown."  Their  strength  was 
reported  to  be  the  cause  "  which  of  late  years  made 
them  refractory."  3  What  need  of  many  words  ?  The 
king  was  taken  up  by  "  the  childish,  simple,  and  baby- 
face,"  of  a  new  favorite  ;  4  and  his  traffic  of  the  honor 
and  independence  of  England  to  the  king  of  France. 
The  duke  of  Buckingham,  now  in  mighty  favor,  was 
revelling  with  a  luxurious  and  abandoned  rout,  having 
with  him  the  impudent  countess  of  Shrewsbury, 
and  his  band  of  fiddlers  ;  and  the  discussions  at  the 


1  Evelyn,  ii.  344.  3  Ibid.  34fi  ;  see,  also,  358 

a  Ibid.  345.  4  ibid.  332.  355. 


PROSPERITY   OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  9] 

council  about  New  England,  were,  for  the  present,  as  CHAP. 
fruitless  as  the  inquiries  how  nutmegs  and  cinnamon  — -v^ 
might  be  naturalized  in  Jamaica. 

Massachusetts  prospered  by  the  neglect.  "  It  is," 
said  Sir  Joshua  Child,  in  his  discourse  on  trade,  "  the  1670 
most  prejudicial  plantation  of  Great  Britain  ;  the  fru- 
gality, industry,  and  temperance  of  its  people,  and  the 
happiness  of  their  laws  and  institutions,  promise  them 
long  life,  and  a  wonderful  increase  of  people,  riches, 
and  power."  They  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  self- 
government  and  virtual  independence.  The  villages 
of  New  England  were  already  the  traveller's  admira- 
tion ;  the  acts  of  navigation  were  not  regarded ;  no 
custom-house  was  established.  Massachusetts,  which 
now  stretched  to  the  Kennebeck,  possessed  a  widely- 
extended  trade ;  acting  as  the  carrier  for  nearly  all  the 
colonies,  and  sending  its  ships  into  the  most  various 
climes.  Vessels  from  Spain  and  Italy,  from  France 
and  Holland,  might  be  seen  in  Boston  harbor,  com- 
merce began  to  pour  out  wealth  on  the  colonists.  A 
generous  nature  employed  wealth  liberally ;  after  the 
great  fire  in  London,  even  the  miserable  in  the  mother 
country  had  received  large  contributions.  It  shows 
the  character  of  the  people,  that  the  town  of  Ports- 
mouth agreed  for  seven  years  to  give  sixty  pounds  a 
year  to  the  college,  which  shared  in  the  prosperity  of 
Boston,  and  continued  to  afford  "  schismaticks  to  the 
church ;  "  while  the  colony  was  reputed  to  abound  in 
"  rebels  to  the  king."  Villages  extended  ;  prosperity 
was  universal.  Beggary  was  unknown ;  theft  was 
rare.  If  "  strange  new  fashions  "  prevailed  among 
"  the  younger  sort  of  women,"  if"  superfluous  ribbons  " 
were  worn  on  their  apparel,  at  least  "  musicians  by 
trade,  and  dancing  schools,"  w  re  not  fostered.  It 


92  PROSPERITY  OF  MASSACHl  SETTS. 

CHAP,  was  still  remembered  that  the  people  were  led  into  ihe 

— v^-  wilderness  by  Aaron,  not  less  than  by  Moses ;  and,  in 

spite  of  the  increasing  spirit  of  inquiry  and  toleration, 

it  was  resolved  to  retain  the  Congregational  churches 

"  in  their  purest  and  most  athletick  constitution."  l 

Amidst  the  calmness  of  such  prosperity,  many  of  the 
patriarchs  of  the  colony, — the  hospitable,  sincere,  but 
1667    persecuting  Wilson;  the  uncompromising  Davenport, 
1 370   ever  zealous  for  Calvinism,  and  zealous  for  independ- 
ence, who  founded  New  Haven  on  a  rock,  and,  having 
at  first  preached  beneath  the  shade  of  a  forest  tree, 
now  lived  to  behold   the   country  full  of  convenient 

1671.  churches;  the  tolerant  Willoughby,  who  had  pleaded 

1672.  for  the  Baptists  ;  the  incorruptible  Bellingham,  precise 
in  his  manners,  and  rigid   in  his  principles  of  inde- 
pendence ; — these,  and  others,  the  fathers  of  the  people, 
lay  down  in  peace,  closing   a  career  of  virtue  in  the 
placid  calmness  of   hope,  and  lamenting  nothing  so 
much    as  that  their  career  was  finished  too  soon  for 
them  to  witness  the  fulness  of  New  England's  glory. 

This  prosperity  itself  portended  danger ;  for  the 
increase  of  the  English  alarmed  the  race  of  red  men, 
who  could  not  change  their  habits,  and  who  saw  them- 
selves deprived  of  their  usual  means  of  subsistence.  It 
is  difficult  to  form  exact  opinions  on  the  population  of 
the  several  colonies  in  this  earlier  period  of  their  history ; 
the  colonial  accounts  are  incomplete ;  and  those  which 
were  furnished  by  emissaries  from  England  are  ex- 
travagantly false.2  Perhaps  no  great  error  will  be 
committed,  if  we  suppose  the  white  population  of  New 
England,  in  1675,  to  have  been  fifty-five  thousand 

1  Hutchinson,  i.  251.  and  wealth  of  the  country  are  de- 

2  The   account  in  Hutch.   Coll.  scribed  in  hyperboles,  that  there  may 
484,  has  been  very  often  repeated,  be  the  greater  opportunity  for  obtain- 
It  is  worthless.      The  population  ing  revenues  from  the  colonists. 


POPULATION    OF    NEW    ENGLAND    IN    1675.  93 

souls.  Of  these,  Plymouth  may  have  contained  not  CHAP 
many  less  than  seven  thousand ;  Connecticut,  nearly  -—^ 
fourteen  thousand;  Massachusetts  proper,  more  than  1675 
twenty-two  thousand ;  and  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
and  Rhode  Island,  each  perhaps  four  thousand.  The 
settlements  were  chiefly  agricultural  communities, 
planted  near  the  sea-side,  from  New  Haven  to  Pema- 
quid.  The  beaver  trade,  even  more  than  traffic  in 
lumber  and  fish,  had  produced  the  villages  beyond  the 
Piscataqua;  yet  in  Maine,  as  in  New  Hampshire, 
there  was  "  a  great  trade  in  deal  boards."  Most  of 
the  towns  were  insulated  settlements  near  the  ocean, 
on  rivers,  which  were  employed  to  drive  "  the  saw- 
mills," then  described  as  a  "  late  invention  ; "  and 
cultivation  had  not  extended  far  into  the  interior. 
Haverhill,  on  the  Merrimack,  was  a  frontier  town ; 
from  Connecticut,  emigrants  had  ascended  as  far  as 
the  rich  meadows  of  Deerfield  and  Northfield ;  but  to 
the  west,  Berkshire  was  a  wilderness ;  Westfield  was 
the  remotest  plantation.  Between  the  towns  on  Con- 
necticut River  and  the  cluster  of  towns  near  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  Lancaster  and  Brookfield  were  the  soli- 
tary abodes  of  Christians  in  the  desert.  The  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts  extended  to  the  Kennebeck, 
and  included  more  than  half  the  population  of  New 
England ;  the  confederacy  of  the  colonies  had  also  n: 
been  renewed,  in  anticipation  of  dangers. 

The  number  of  the  Indians  of  that  day  hardly 
amounted  to  thirty  thousand  in  all  New  England  west 
of  the  St.  Croix.  Of  these,  perhaps  about  five  thou- 
sand dwelt  in  the  territory  of  Maine  ;  New  Hampshire 
may  have  hardly  contained  three  thousand  ;  and  Massa- 
chusetts, with  Plymouth,  never  from  the  first  peopled 
by  many  Indians,  seems  to  have  had  less  than  eight 
thousand.  In  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  never 


a/.at  ! 
ii.  511 


94  POPULATION  OF  INDIAN  TRIBES  IN  N.  £.   IN  1675. 

i  'HAP.  depopulated  by  wasting  sickness,  the  Mohegans,  the 

-VII.  »  f 

-  Narragansetts,   the    Pokariokets,   and   kindred    tribes, 
1675.  jja(j  multiplied  their  villages  round  the  sea-shore,  the 
inlets,   and  the  larger  ponds,   which   increased  their 
i  scanty  supplies  by  furnishing  abundance  of  fish.     Yet, 
-  °f  these,  the  exaggerated  estimates  melt  away,  when 


V  subjected  to  criticism.  To  Connecticut,  rumor,  in  the 
wnnV.  days  of  the  elder  Winthrop,  gave  three  or  four  thou- 
Ga^ua-  sand  warrior  Indians ;  and  there  may  have  been  half 
gJ^-J  of  the  larger  number :  the  Narragansetts,  like  so  many 
iMmes,  other  tribes,  boasted  of  their  former  grandeur,  but 
nHiSat!3'  they  could  not  bring  into  action  a  thousand  bow- 

Coll.  i.  J 

Answer  men.  Thus,  therefore,  west  of  the  Piscataqua,  there 
2raiGAs-  were  probably  about  fifty  thousand  whites  and  hardly 
in  i68o,  twenty-five  thousand  Indians :  while  east  of  the  same 

»n  Chal-  f 

m£g'  stream,  there  were  about  four  thousand  whites,  and 
perhaps  more  than  that  number  of  red  men. 

A  sincere  attempt  had  been  made  to  convert  the 
natives,  and  win  them  to  the  regular  industry  of 
civilized  life.  The  ministers  of  the  early  emigration 
were  fired  with  a  zeal  as  pure  as  it  was  fervent ;  they 
longed  to  redeem  these  "  wrecks  of  humanity,"  by 
planting  in  their  hearts  the  seeds  of  conscious  virtue, 
and  gathering  them  into  permanent  villages. 

No  pains  were  spared  to  teach  them  to  read  and 
write ;  and,  in  a  short  time,  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
Massachusetts  Indians  could  do  so,  than  recently  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Russia.  Some  of  them  spoke  and  wrote 
English  tolerably  well.  Foremost  among  these  early 
missionaries — the  morning  star  of  missionary  enter- 
prise—  was  John  Eliot,  whose  benevolence  almost 
amounted  to  the  inspiration  of  genius.  An  Indian 
grammar  was  a  pledge  of  his  earnestness ;  the  pledge 
was  redeemed  by  his  preparing  and  publishing  a  trans- 


THE   PRAV1NG  1JNDIANS.  95 

.ation  of  the  whole  Bible  into  the  Massachusetts  dialect.  CHAP 

XII 

His  actions,  his  thoughts,  his  desires,  all  wore  the  hues  — -* -^ 
of  disinterested  love.     His  uncontrollable  charity  welled 
out  in  a  perpetual  fountain. 

Eliot  mixed  with  the  Indians.  He  spoke  to  them 
of  God,  and  of  the  soul,  and  explained  the  virtues  of 
self-denial.  He  became  their  lawgiver.  He  taught 
the  women  to  spin,  the  men  to  dig  the  ground  ;  he 
established  for  them  simple  forms  of  government ;  and, 
in  spite  of  menaces  from  their  priests  and  chieftains, 
he  instructed  them  in  his  own  religious  faith,  and  not 
without  success.  Groups  of  Indians  used  to  gather 
round  him  as  round  a  father,  and,  now  that  their  minds 
were  awakened  to  reflection,  often  perplexed  him  with 
their  questions.  The  minds  of  the  philosopher  and 
the  savage  are  not  so  wide  apart  as  is  often  imagined, 
they  both  alike  find  it  difficult  to  solve  the  problem  of 
existence.  The  world  is  divided  between  materialists 
and  spiritualists.  "  What  is  a  spirit  ?  "  said  the  In- 
dians of  Massachusetts  to  their  apostle.  "  Can  the  soul 
be  inclosed  in  iron  so  that  it  cannot  escape  ?  " — "  When 
Christ  arose,  whence  came  his  soul  ?  "  Every  clan 
had  some  vague  conceptions  of  immortality.1  "  Shall 
I  know  you  in  heaven  ?  "  said  an  inquiring  red  man. 
"  Our  little  children  have  not  sinned  ;  when  they  die, 
whither  do  they  go  ? " — "  When  such  die  as  never 
heard  of  Christ,  where  do  they  go  ?  " — "  Do  they  in 
heaven  dwell  in  houses,  and  what  do  they  do  ?  " — "  Do 
they  know  things  done  here  on  earth  ?  "  The  origin 
of  moral  evil  has  engaged  the  minds  of  the  most  subtle. 
"  Why,"  demanded  the  natives  on  the  banks  of  the 
Charles,  "  why  did  not  God  give  all  men  good  hearts  ?  " 
— "  Since  God  is  all-powerful,  why  did  not  God  kill 

-  Day-breaking,  if  not  Sun-rising,  of  the  Gospel,  7 


96  THE   PRAYING  INDIANS. 

CHAP,  the  devil,  that  made  men  so  bad  ? "     Of  themselves 

XII 

- — -~  they  fell  into  the  mazes  of  fixed  decrees  and  five  will. 
"  Doth  God  know  who  shall  repent  and  believe,  and 
who  not?"  The  statesman  might  have  hesitated  in 
his  answers  to  some  problems.  The  ballot-box  was  to 
them  a  mystery.  "  When  you  choose  magistrates,  how 
do  you  know  who  are  good  men,  whom  you  dare  trust?" 
And  again,  "  If  a  man  be  wise,  and  his  sachem  weak, 
must  he  yet  obey  him  ?  "  Cases  of  casuistry  occurred  ; 
I  will  cite  but  two,  one  of  which,  at  least,  cannot 
easily  be  decided.  Eliot  preached  against  polygamy. 
"  Suppose  a  man,  before  he  knew  God,"  inquired  a 
convert,  "  hath  had  two  wives  ;  the  first  childless,  the 
second  bearing  him  many  sweet  children,  whom  he 
exceedingly  loves ;  which  of  these  two  wives  is  he  to 
put  away  ?  "  And  the  question  which  Kotzebue  pro- 
posed in  a  fiction,  that  has  found  its  way  across  the 
globe,  was  in  real  life  put  to  the  pure-minded  Eliot, 
among  the  wigwams  of  Nonantum.  "  Suppose  a 
squaw  desert  and  flee  from  her  husband,  and  live  with 
another  distant  Indian,  till,  hearing  the  word,  she 
repents,  and  desires  to  come  again  to  her  husband, 
who  remains  still  unmarried  ;  shall  the  husband,  upon 
her  repentance,  receive  her  again  ? "  The  poet  of 
civilization  tells  us  that  happiness  is  the  end  of  our 
being.  "  How  shall  I  find  happiness  ? "  demanded 
the  savage.1  And  Eliot  was  never  tired  with  this 
importunity ;  the  spirit  of  humanity  sustained  him  to 
the  last ;  his  zeal  was  not  wearied  by  the  hereditary 
idleness  of  the  race ;  and  his  simplicity  of  life  and 
manners,  and  evangelical  sweetness  of  temper,  won  for 

1  Day-breaking,  &c.  18.  Clear  Light  appearing  more  and  more, 
Sunshine  of  the  Gospel,  13.  24.  33,  25,  26,  27.  29,  30.  See  the  tracts 
34.  Glorious  Progress,  20.  The  collected  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxiv 


THE  PRAYING  INDIANS.  97 

him  all  hearts,  whether  in  the  villages  of  the  emigrants,  CHAP 
or  "  the  smoaky  cells  "  of  the  natives. 

Nor  was  Eliot  alone.  In  the  islands  round  Massa- 
chusetts, and  within  the  limits  of  the  Plymouth  patent, 
missionary  zeal  and  charity  were  active  ;  and  "  that 
young  New  England  scholar,"  the  gentle  Mayhew, 
forgetting  the  pride  of  learning,  endeavored  to  win  the 
natives  to  a  new  religion.  At  a  later  day,  he  took 
passage  for  England  to  awaken  interest  there  ;  and  the 
ship  in  which  he  sailed  was  never  more  heard  of.  But 
such  had  been  the  force  of  his  example,  that  his  father, 
though  bowed  down  by  the  weight  of  seventy  years, 
resolved  on  assuming  the  office  of  the  son  whom  he  had 
lost,  and,  till  beyond  the  age  of  fourscore  years  and 
twelve,  continued  to  instruct  the  natives  of  the  isles  ; 
and  with  the  happiest  results.  The  Indians  within 
his  influence,  though  twenty  times  more  numerous 
than  the  whites  in  their  immediate  neighborhood,  pre- 
served an  immutable  friendship  with  Massachusetts.1 

Thus  churches  were  gathered  among  the  heathen ; 
villages  of  "  praying  Indians  "  established ;  at  Cam- 
bridge an  Indian  actually  became  a  bachelor  of  arts.  16 
Yet  Christianity  hardly  spread  beyond  the  Indians  on 
Cape  Cod,  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  Nantucket,  and 
the  seven  feeble  villages  round  Boston.  The  Narra- 
gansetts,  a  powerful  tribe,  counting  at  least  a  thousand 
warriors,2  hemmed  in  between  Connecticut  and  Plym- 
outh, restless  and  jealous,  retained  their  old  belief; 
and  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  at  the  head  of  seven  hun- 
dred warriors,  professed  with  pride  the  faith  of  his 
fathers. 

1  See  Mayhew's  Indian  Converts,  b.  vi.  c.  vi. ;    Gookin's  Praying  Jn- 

and,  at  the  end  of  it,  T.  Prince's  Ac-  dians,  MS. 

count  of  English  ministers,  &c.  &c.  2  Gookin  says  a  thousand ;  others 

Compare    Neal'a  N.   E. ;    Mather,  more. 

VOL.    II.  13 


98  PHILIP   OF    POKANOKET  AND   HIS  TRIBES. 

CHAP.  But  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  and  the  tribes  that  owned 
— -^  his  influence,  were  now .  shut  in  by  the  gathering 
1675  plantations  of  the  English,  and  were  the  first  to  awaken 
to  a  sense  of  the  danger  of  extermination.  True, 
the  inhabitants  of  New  England  had  never,  except  in 
the  territory  of  the  Pequods,  taken  possession  of  a  foot ' 
of  land  without  first  obtaining  a  title  from  the  Indians, 
But  the  unlettered  savage,  who  repented  the  alienation 
of  vast  tracts,  by  affixing  a  shapeless  mark  to  a  bond, 
might  deem  the  English  tenure  defeasible.  Again : 
By  repeated  treaties,  the  red  man  had  acknowledged 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  English,  who  claimed  a  guardian- 
ship over  the  Indian,  and  really  endeavored  in  their 
courts,  with  scrupulous  justice,  and  even  with  favor, 
to  protect  him  from  fraud,  and  to  avenge  his  wrongs. 
But  the  wild  inhabitants  of  the  woods  or  the  sea-shore 
could  not  understand  the  duty  of  allegiance  to  an 
unknown  sovereign,  or  acknowledge  the  binding  force 
of  a  political  compact ;  crowded  by  hated  neighbors, 
losing  fields  and  hunting-grounds,  and  frequently  sum- 
moned to  Boston  or  Plymouth,  to  reply  to  an  accusa- 
tion, or  to  explain  their  purposes,  they  sighed  for  the 
forest  freedom,  which  was  to  them  more  dear  than 
constitutional  liberties  to  the  civilized,  and  which  had 
been  handed  down  to  them  from  immemorial  ages. 

The  clans  within  the  limits  of  the  denser  settlements 
of  the  English,  especially  the  Indian  villages  round 
Boston,  were  broken-spirited,  from  the  overwhelming 
force  of  the  English.  In  their  rude  blending  of  new 
instructions  with  their  ancient  superstitions — in  their 
feeble  imitations  of  the  manners  of  civilization — in  their 
appeals  to  the  charities  of  Europeans — they  had 

1  Winslow,  in  Hubbard's  Indian  Ware,  55- 


PHILIP   OF   POKANOKET   AND   HIS  TRIBES.  99 

quenched   the    fierce    spirit  of  savage   independence.  CHAP 
They  loved  the  crums  from  the  white  man's  table.          — -v-^ 

But  the  Pokanokets  had  always  rejected  the  Chris-  1675 
tian  faith  and  the  Christian  manners ;  and  Massasoit 
had  desired  to  insert  in  a  treaty,1  what  the  Puritans 
never  permitted,  that  the  English  should  never  attempt 
to  convert  the  warriors  of  his  tribe  from  the  religion  of 
their  race.  The  aged  Massasoit — he  who  had  wel- 
comed the  Pilgrims  to  the  soil  of  New  England,  and 
had  opened  his  cabin  to  shelter  the  founder  of  Rhode 
Island — now  slept  with  his  fathers  ;  and  his  son,  Philip 
of  Pokanoket,  had  succeeded  him  as  chief  over  allied 
tribes.  Repeated  sales  of  land  had  narrowed  their 
domains  ;  and  the  English  had  artfully  crowded  them 
into  the  tongues  of  land,  as  "  most  suitable  and  con- 
venient for  them.""5  There  they  could  be  more  easily 
watched ;  for  the  frontiers  of  the  narrow  peninsulas 
were  inconsiderable.  Thus  the  two  chief  seats  of  the 
Pokanokets  were  the  necks  of  land,  which  we  now 
call  Bristol  and  Tiverton.  As  population  pressed  upon 
other  savages,  the  west  was  open ;  but  as  the  English 
villages  drew  nearer  and  nearer  to  them,  their  hunting- 
grounds  were  put  under  culture  ;  and  as  the  ever-urgent 
importunity  of  the  English  was  quieted  but  for  a  season 
by  partial  concessions  from  the  unwary  Indians,  their 
natural  parks  were  turned  into  pastures;  their  best 
fields  for  planting  corn  were  gradually  alienated ;  their 
fisheries  were  impaired  by  more  skilful  methods  ;  and, 
as  wave  after  wave  succeeded,  they  found  themselves 
deprived  of  their  broad  acres,  and,  by  their  own  legal 
contracts,  driven  as  it  were  into  the  sea. 

Collisions  and  mutual  distrust  were  the    necessary 

1  Hubbard,  47.  a  Winslow  avows  the  policy. 


100  PHILIP  OF  POKANOKET  AND  THE  TRIBES  OF  N.    fc 

CHAP,  consequence.  I  can  find  no  evidence  of  a  deliberate 
-^^-  conspiracy  on  the  part  of  all  the  tribes.  The  com- 
mencement of  war  was  accidental ;  many  of  the  Indians 
were  in  a  maze,  not  knowing  what  to  do,  and  ready 
to  stand  for  the  English ; !  sure  proof  of  no  lipened 
conspiracy.  But  to  many  tribes  there  were  common 
griefs ;  they  had  the  same  recollections,  and  the  same 
fears  ;  and,  when  they  met,  could  not  but  complain  of 
their  common  lot.  When  the  young  warriors  came 
together,  how  could  they  fail  to  regret  the  ancient 
domains  of  their  fathers  ?  Their  haughty  spirit  spurned 
the  English  claim  of  jurisdiction  ;  and  they  were  indig- 
nant, that  Indian  chiefs  or  warriors  should  be  arraigned 
before  a  jury.  And  what,  in  their  eyes,  were  paper 
deeds,  the  seals  and  signatures,  of  which  they  could  not 
comprehend  the  binding  force  ?  And  when  the  ex- 
pressions of  common  passion  were  repeated  by  an 
Indian  talebearer,  fear  magnified  the  plans  of  the 
tribes  into  an  organized  scheme  of  resistance. 

The  haughty  chieftain,  who  had  once  before  been 
compelled  to  surrender  his  "  English  arms,"  and  pay 
1674.  an  onerous  tribute,  was  summoned  to  submit  to  an 
examination,  and  could  not  escape  suspicion.  The 
wrath  of  his  tribe  was  roused,  and  the  informer  was 
murdered.  The  murderers  in  their  turn  were  iden- 
rifled,  seized,  tried  by  a  jury,  of  which  one  half  were 
Indians,  and,  on  conviction,  were  hanged.  The  young 
men  of  the  tribe  panted  for  revenge ;  without  delay  eight 
or  nine  of  the  English  were  slain  in  or  about  Swansey ; 
and  the  alarm  of  war  spread  through  the  colonies. 

Thus  was  Philip  hurried  into  "  his  rebellion ;  "  and 
he  is  reported  to  have  wept a  as  he  heard  that  a  white 

l  Hub  bard,  5(3.  2  Calender's  Century  Sermon. 


KING  PHILIP'S   WAR.  101 

man's  blood  had  been  shed.1     He  had  kept  his  men  CHAP 

XII 

about  him  in  arms,  and  had  welcomed  every  stranger  ;  — ^ 
and  now,  against  his  judgment  and  his  will,  he  was  1675 
involved  in  war.  For  what  prospect  had  he  of  success  ? 
Destiny  had  marked  him  and  his  tribe.  The  English 
were  united ;  the  Indians  had  no  alliance  ; — the  Eng- 
lish made  a  common  cause ;  half  the  Indians  were 
allies  of  the  English,  or  were  quiet  spectators  of  the 
fight ; — the  English  had  guns  enough  ;  but  few  of  the 
Indians  were  well  armed,  and  they  could  get  no  new 
supplies ; — the  English  had  towns  for  their  shelter  and 
safe  retreat;  the  miserable  wigwams  of  the  natives 
were  defenceless ; — the  English  had  sure  supplies  of 
food ;  the  Indians  might  easily  lose  their  precarious 
stores.  The  individual,  growing  giddy  by  danger, 
rushes,  as  it  were,  towards  his  fate  ;  so  did  the  Indians 
of  New  England.  Frenzy  prompted  their  rising.  It 
was  but  the  storm  in  which  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
the  land  were  to  vanish  away.  They  rose  without 
hope,  and,  therefore,  they  fought  without  mercy.  For 
them  as  a  nation,  there  was  no  to-morrow. 

The  minds  of  the  English  were  appalled  by  the 
horrors  of  the  impending  conflict,  and  superstition 
indulged  in  its  wild  inventions.  At  the  time  of  the 
eclipse  of  the  moon,  you  might  have  seen  the  figure  of 
an  Indian  scalp  imprinted  on  the  centre  of  its  disk. 
The  perfect  form  of  an  Indian  bow  appeared  in  the 
sky  Tho  sighing  of  the  wind  was  like  the  whistling 

1  The  authorities  on  King  Phil-  of  United  Colonies,  in  Hazard,  vol 

ip's  war   are,  Present  State   of  N.  ii. ;  Anne  it  %wland  son's  Captivity , 

E.,  and  four  other  Tracts,  first  pub-  Wheeler's  Narrative,  in  New  Hamp. 

lished  in  1675  and  1676,  and  now,  Hist.  Coll.  ii.  5,  &c. ;  Gookin,  in  1 

in    1833    and    1836,    reprinted    by  Mass.  Hist  Coll.  i.  148,  &c. ;  Mas- 

S.  G.  Drake  ;     Increase    Mather's  sachusetts  Records  and  Files.    Add 

Hist,  of  Troubles  with  the  Indians  ;  Callender's   Century   Sermon;   the 

Hubbard's  Indian  Wars  ;  Church's  important  notes  of  Davis  on  Mor- 

Hist.  of  King  Philip's  W&r ;  Records  ton. 


102  KING  PHILIP'S  WAR. 

THAP.  of  bullets.  Some  distinctly  heard  invisible  troops  of 
— ' — -  horses  gallop  through  the  air,  while  others  found  the 
1675.  prophecy  of  calamities  in  the  howling  of  the  wolves.1 

At  the  very  beginning  of  danger,  the  colonists 
exerted  their  wonted  energy.  Volunteers  from  Mas- 
sachusetts joined  the  troops  from  Plymouth;  and 
within  a  week  from  the  commencement  of  hostilities, 
the  insulated  Pokanokets  were  driven  from  Mount 
Hope,  and  in  less  than  a  month,  Philip  was  a  fugitive 
among  the  Nipmucks,  the  interior  tribes  of  Massachu 
setts.  The  little  army  of  the  colonists  then  entered 
the  territory  of  the  Narragansttts,  and  from  the  reluc 
tant  tribe  extorted  a  treaty  of  neutrality,  with  a  prom- 
ise to  deliver  up  every  hostile  Indian.  Victory  seemed 
promptly  assured.  But  it  was  only  the  commence- 
ment of  horrors.  Canonchet,  the  chief  sachem  of  the 
Narragansetts,  was  the  son  of  Miantonomoh ;  and 
could  he  forget  his  father's  wrongs  ?  And  would  the 
tribes  of  New  England  permit  the  nation  that  had  first 
given  a  welcome  to  the  English  to  perish  unavenged  ? 
Desolation  extended  along  the  whole  frontier.  Ban- 
ished from  his  patrimony,  where  the  pilgrims  found  a 
friend,  and  from  his  cabin,  which  had  sheltered  the 
exiles,  Philip,  with  his  warriors,  spread  through  the 
country,  awakening  their  brethren  to  a  warfare  oi 
extermination. 

The  war,  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  was  one  of 
ambushes  and  surprises.  They  never  once  met  the 
English  in  open  field  ;  but  always,  even  if  eightfold  in 
numbers,  fled  timorously  before  infantry.  But  they 
were  secret  as  beasts  of  prey,  skilful  marksmen,  and  in 
part  provided  with  fire-arms,  fleet  of  foot,  conversant 
with  all  the  paths  of  the  forest,  patient  ol  fatigue  and 

»  C  Mather,  ii.  486.    I.  Mather,  34.    Hubbard,  120. 


KING   PHILIP'S   WAR  103 

mad  with  a  passion  for  rapine,  vengeance,  and  destruc-  CHAP 
rion,   retreating  into  swamps  for  their  fastnesses,  or  —  -  v-L 


niding  in  the  greenwood  thickets,  where  the  leaves 
muffled  the  ejes  of  the  pursuer.  By  the  rapidity  of 
their  descent,  they  seemed  omnipresent  among  the 
scattered  villages,  which  they  ravaged  like  a  passing 
storm  ;  and  for  a  full  year  they  kept  all  New  England 
in  a  state  of  terror  and  excitement.  The  exploring 
party  was  waylaid  and  cut  off,  and  the  mangled  car- 
casses and  disjointed  limbs  of  the  dead  were  hung  upon 
the  trees  to  terrify  pursuers.  The  laboter  in  the  field, 
the  reapers  as  they  went  forth  to  the  harvest,  men  as 
they  went  to  mill,  the  shepherd's  boy  among  the  sheep, 
were  shot  down  by  skulking  foes,  whose  approach  was 
invisible.  Who  can  tell  the  heavy  hours  of  woman  ? 
The  mother,  if  left  alone  in  the  house,  feared  the 
tomahawk  for  herself  and  children  ;  on  the  sudden 
attack,  the  husband  would  fly  with  one  child,  the  wife 
with  another,  and,  perhaps,  one  only  escape  ;  the 
village  cavalcade,  making  its  way  to  meeting  on  Sun 
day,  in  files  on  horseback,  the  farmer  holding  the  bridle 
in  one  hand,  and  a  child  in  the  other,  his  wife  seated 
on  a  pillion  behind  him,  it  may  be  with  a  child  in  her 
lap,  as  was  the  fashion  in  those  days,  could  not  proceed 
safely  ;  but,  at  the  moment  when  least  expected,  bullets 
would  whiz  amongst  them,  discharged  with  fatal 
aim  from  an  ambuscade  by  the  way-side.  The  forest, 
that  protected  the  ambush  of  the  Indians,  secured  their 
retreat.  They  hung  upon  the  skirts  of  the  English 
villages,  "  like  the  lightning  on  the  edge  of  the  clouds."  l 
What  need  of  repeating  the  same  tale  of  horrors? 
Brookfield  was  set  on  fire,  and  rescued  only  to  be 
Abandoned  ;  Deerfield  was  burned  :  Hadley,  surprised  Sept.] 

i  Washington  Irving. 


104  KING  PHILIP'S  WAR 

CHAP,  during  a  time  of  religious  service,  was  saved  only  by  me 

— daring  of  GofFe,  the  regicide,  now  bowed  with  years, 

1675.  a  heavenly  messenger  of  rescue,  who  darted  from  his 
hiding-place,  rallied  the  disheartened,  and,  having 
achieved  a  safe  defence,  sunk  away  into  his  retire- 
ment, to  be  no  more  seen.  The  plains  of  Northfield 
Sept  were  wet  with  the  blood  of  Beers,  and  twenty  of  his 
valiant  associates.  As  Lathrop's  company  of  young 
men,  the  very  flower  of  the  young  men  of  Essex,  all 
"  culled  "  out  of  the  towns  of  that  county,  were  con- 
Sept  veying  the  harvests  of  Deerfield  to  the  lower  towns, 
they  were  suddenly  surrounded  by  a  horde  of  Indians ; 
and,  as  each  party  fought  from  behind  trees,  the  victory 
was  with  the  far  more  numerous  savages.  Hardly  a 
white  man  escaped ;  the  little  stream  that  winds 
through  the  tranquil  scene,  by  its  name  of  blood,  com- 
memorates the  massacre  of  that  day.1  Springfield  was 
Oct.  burned,  and  Hadley  once  more  assaulted.  The  re- 
moter villages  were  deserted ;  the  pleasant  residences, 
that  had  been  won  by  hard  toil  in  the  desert,  the 
stations  of  civilization  in  the  wilderness,  were  laid 
waste. 

But  the  English  were  not  the  only  sufferers.  In 
winter,  it  was  the  custom  of  the  natives  to  dweH 
together  in  their  wigwams  ;  in  spring,  they  would  be 
dispersed  through  the  woods.  In  winter,  the  warriors 
who  had  spread  misery  through  the  west,  were  shel- 
tered among  the  Narragansetts  ;  in  spring,  they  would 
renew  their  devastations.  In  winter,  the  absence  of 
foliage  made  the  forests  less  dangerous ;  in  spring, 
every  bush  would  be  a  hiding-place.  It  was  resolved 
to  regard  the  Narragansetts  as  enemies  ;  and  a  little 
18.  before  the  winter  solstice,  a  thousand  men,  levied  by 

1  See  the  names  in  note  to  E.  Everett's  Address  at  Bloody  Brook,  37 


KING   PHILIP'S   WAR  105 

the  united    colonies,    and    commanded   by  the    brave  CHAP 

xn 
Josiah  Winslow,  a  native  of   New  England,   invaded  — ^L 

their  territory.  After  a  night  spent  in  the  open  air,  1675. 
they  waded  through  the  snow  from  day-break  till  an  ^c* 
hour  after  noon  ;  and  at  last  reached  the  cluster  of  wig- 
wams which  a  fort  protected.  Davenport,  Gardner, 
Johnson,  Gallop,  Siely,  Marshall,  led  their  companies 
through  the  narrow  entrance  in  the  face  of  death,  and 
left  their  lives  as  a  testimony  to  their  patriotism  and 
courage.  Feeble  palisades  could  not  check  the  de- 
termined valor  of  the  white  men;  and  the  group  of 
Indian  cabins  was  soon  set  on  fire.  Thus  were  swept 
away  the  humble  glories  of  the  Narragansetts  ;  the 
winter's  stores  of  the  tribe,  their  curiously-wrought 
baskets,  full  of  corn,  their  famous  strings  of  wampum, 
their  wigwams  nicely  lined  with  mats, — all  the  little 
comforts  of  savage  life  were  consumed.  And  more — 
their  old  men,  their  women,  their  babes,  perished  by 
hundreds  in  the  fire. 

Then,  indeed,  was  the  cup  of  misery  full  for  these  1676 
red  men.  Without  shelter  and  without  food,  they  hid 
themselves  in  a  cedar  swamp,  with  no  defence  against 
the  cold  but  boughs  of  evergreen  trees.  They  prowled 
the  forests  and  pawed  up  the  snow,  to  gather  nuts  and 
acorns ;  they  dug  the  earth  for  ground-nuts  ;  they  ate 
remnants  of  horse-flesh  as  a  luxury ;  they  sunk  down 
from  feebleness  and  want  of  food.  Winter  and  famine, 
and  disease  consequent  on  vile  diet,  were  the  allies  of 
the  English ;  while  the  English  troops,  after  much 
severe  suffering,  found  their  way  to  firesides. 

The   spirit  of  Canonchet  did  not  droop  under  the 
disasters  of  his  tribe.     "  We  will  fight  to  the  last  man," 
laid   the   gallant   chieftain,  "  rather  than  become  ser 
•ants  to  the  English."     Taken  prisoner  at  last,  near  April 

VOL.  II.  14 


106  MARY   ROWLANDSON'S  CAPTIVITY. 

CHAP,  the  Blackstone,  a  young  man  began  to  question  him 
— -^  "  Child,"  replied  he,  "  you  do  not  understand  war ;   1 
1676.  wiu  answer  your  chief."     His  life  was  offered  him,  if 
he  would  procure  a  treaty  of  peace ;  he  refused  the 
offer  with  disdain.     "  I  know,"  added  he,  "  the  Indians 
will  not  yield."     Condemned   to  death,  he  only  ar 
swered,  "  I  like  it  well ;  I  shall  die  before  I  speak  anr 
thing  unworthy  of  myself." 

Meantime  the  Indian  warriors  were  not  idle.  "  We 
will  fight,"  said  they,  "  these  twenty  years ;  you  have 
houses,  barns,  and  com ;  we  have  now  nothing  to 
lose ;  "  and  one  town  in  Massachusetts  after  another — 
Lancaster,  Medfield,  Weymouth,  Groton,  Marl  borough 
— were  laid  in  ashes. 

No  where  was  there  more  distress  than  at  Lancaster. 
Forty-two  persons  sought  shelter  under  the  roof  of 
Mary  Rowlandson ;  and,  after  a  hot  assault,  the 
Indians  succeeded  in  setting  the  house  on  fire.  Will 
the  mothers  of  the  United  States,  happy  in  the  midst 
of  unexampled  prosperity,  know  the  sorrows  of  woman 
in  a  former  generation  ?  "  Quickly,"  writes  Mary 
Rowlandson,  "  it  was  the  dolefulest  day  that  ever  mine 
eyes  saw.  Now  the  dreadful  hour  is  come.  Some  in 
our  house  were  fighting  for  their  lives ;  others  wallow- 
ing in  blood  ;  the  house  on  fire  over  our  heads,  and  the 
bloody  heathen  ready  to  knock  us  on  the  head,  if  we 
stirred  out.  I  took  my  children  to  go  forth  ;  but  the 
Indians  shot  so  thick,  that  the  bullets  rattled  against 
the  house,  as  if  one  had  thrown  a  handful  of  stones. 
We  had  six  stout  dogs,  but  none  of  them  would  stir. 
*  *  *  The  bullets  flying  thick,  one  went  through  my 
side,  and  through  my  poor  child  in  my  arms."  The 
brutalities  of  an  Indian  massacre  followed ;  "  there 
remained  nothing  to  me,"  she  continues,  now  in  cap- 


KING  PHILIP'S   WAR.  107 

tivity,  "  but  one  poor  wounded  babe.     Down  I  must  CHAP 
sit  in  the  snow,  with  my  sick  child,  the  picture  of  ~-*-— 
death,  in  my  lap.     Not  the  least  crumb  of  refreshing  167b 
came  within  either  of  our  mouths  from  Wednesday 
night  to  Saturday  night,  except  only  a  little  cold  water. 
*  *  *  One  Indian,  and  then    a   second,   and  then  a 
third,  would  come  and  tell  me,  Your  master  will  quickly 
knock  your  child  on  the  head.     This  was  the  comfort 
I    had  from    them ;   miserable    comforters  were   they 
all."1 

Nor  were  such  scenes  of  ruin  confined  to  Massachu- 
setts. At  the  south,  the  whole  Narragansett  country 
was  deserted  by  the  English.  Warwick  was  burned  ; 
Providence  was  attacked  and  set  on  fire.  There  was 
no  security  but  to  seek  out  the  hiding-places  of  the 
natives,  and  destroy  them  by  surprise.  On  the  banks 
of  the  Connecticut,  just  above  the  Falls  that  take  their 
name  from  the  gallant  Turner,  was  an  encampment  of 
large  bodies  of  hostile  Indians  ;  a  band  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  volunteers,  from  among  the  yeomanry  of 
Springfield,  Hadley,  Hatfield,  and  Northampton,  led 
by  Turner  and  Holyoke,  making  a  silent  march  in  the 
dead  of  night,  came  at  day-break  upon  the  wigwams.  May 
The  Indians  are  taken  by  surprise ;  some  are  shot 
down  in  their  cabins ;  others  rush  to  the  river,  and  are 
drowned ;  others  push  from  shore  in  their  birchen 
canoes,  and  are  hurried  down  the  cataract. 

As  the  season  advanced,  the  Indians  abandoned 
every  hope.  Their  forces  were  wasted ;  they  had  no 
fields  that  they  could  plant.  Such  continued  warfare 
without  a  respite  was  against  their  usages.  They 
began,  as  the  unsuccessful  and  unhappy  so  often  do, 
to  quarrel  among  themselves ;  recriminations  ensued ; 

1  M.  Rowlandson's  Narrative,  12-— 25 


108  KING  PHILIP'S  WAR. 

CHAP,  those  of  Connecticut  charged  their  sufferings  upon 
- — ~  Philip ;  and  those  who  had  been  his  allies,  became 
1676.  suppliants  for  peace.  Some  surrendered  to  escape 
starvation.  In  the  progress  of  the  year,  between  t\vo 
and  three  thousand  Indians  were  killed  or  submitted. 
Church,  the  most  famous  partisan  warrior,  went  out  U- 
hunt  down  parties  of  fugitives.  Some  of  the  tribes 
wandered  away  to  the  north,  and  were  blended  with 
the  tribes  of  Canada.  Did  they  there  nourish  the 
spirit  of  revenge,  and  remember  their  ancient  haunts, 
that  they  might  one  day  pilot  fresh  hordes  of  invaders 
from  the  north,  to  renew  the  work  of  devastation  ? 
Philip  himself,  a  man  of  no  ordinary  elevation  of  char- 
acter, was  chased  from  one  hiding-place  to  another. 
He  had  vainly  sought  to  engage  the  Mohawks  in  the 
contest ;  now  that  hope  was  at  an  end,  he  still  refused 
to  hear  of  peace,  and  struck  dead  the  warrior  who 
proposed  it.  At  length,  after  the  absence  of  a  year, 
he  resolved,  as  it  were,  to  meet  his  destiny ;  and 
returned  to  the  beautiful  land  where  were  the  graves 
of  his  forefathers,  the  cradle  of  his  infancy,  and  the 
Aug.  nestling-place  of  his  tribe.  Once  he  escaped  narrowly, 
leaving  his  wife  and  only  son  as  prisoners.  "  My  heart 
breaks,"  cried  the  tattooed  chieftain,  in  the  agony  of 
his  grief;  "  now  I  am  ready  to  die."  His  own  follow- 
ers began  to  plot  against  him,  to  make  better  terms  for 
themselves,  and  in  a  few  days  he  was  shot  by  a  faithless 
Indian.  The  captive  orphan  was  transported.  So  per- 
ished the  princes  of  the  Pokanokets.  Sad  to  them  had 
been  their  acquaintance  with  civilization.  The  first  ship 
that  came  on  their  coast,  kidnapped  men  of  their  kin- 
dred ;  and  now  the  harmless  boy,  that  had  been  cher- 
ished as  an  only  child,  and  the  future  sachem  of  their 
tribes,  the  last  of  the  family  of  Massasoit,  was  sold  into 


RING   PHILIP'S   WAR.  109 

bondage,  to  toil  as  a  slave  1  under  the  suns  of  Bermuda.  CHAP 

XII 

Of  the  once  prosperous  Narragansetts,  of  old  the  chief  — v-L 
tribe  of  New  England,  hardly  one  hundred  men  re-  lfi76 
mained.     The  sword,  fire,  famine,  and  sickness,  had 
swept  them  from  the  earth. 

During  the  whole  war,  the  Mohegans  remained 
faithful  to  the  English ;  and  not  a  drop  of  blood  was 
shed  on  the  happy  soil  of  Connecticut.  So  much  the 
greater  was  the  loss  in  the  adjacent  colonies.  Twelve 
or  thirteen  towns  were  destroyed ;  the  disbursements 
and  losses  equalled  in  value  half  a  million  of  dollars — an 
enormous  sum  for  the  few  of  that  day.  More  than  six 
hundred  men,  chiefly  young  men,  the  flower  of  the 
country,  of  whom  any  mother  might  have  been  proud, 
perished  in  the  field.  As  many  as  six  hundred  houses 
were  burned.  Of  the  able-bodied  men  in  the  colony, 
one  in  twenty  had  fallen  ;  and  one  family  in  twenty- 
had  been  burnt  out.  The  loss  of  lives  and  property 
was,  in  proportion  to  numbers,  as  distressing  as  in  the 
revolutionary  war.  There  was  scarcely  a  family  from 
which  death  had  not  selected  a  victim. 

Let  us  not  forget  a  good  deed  of  the  generous  Irish ; 
they  sent  over  a  contribution,  small,  it  is  true,  to  relieve 
in  part  the  distresses  of  Plymouth  colony.  Connecti- 
cut, which  had  contributed  soldiers  to  the  war,  now 
furnished  the  houseless  with  more  than  a  thousand 
bushels  of  corn.  "  God  will  remember  and  reward 
that  pleasant  fruit."  Boston  imitated  the  example , 
for  "  the  grace  of  Christ,"  it  was  said,  "  always  made 
Boston  exemplary"  in  works  of  that  nature. 

The  eastern  hostilities  with  the  Indians  had  a  dif- 
ferent origin,  and  were  of  longer  continuance.  The 
news  of  the  rising  of  the  Pokanokets  was,  indeed,  the 

1  Davis,  in  Morton,  453,  &c. 


11(1  THE   INDIAN  WAR   IN   MAINE. 

CHAP,  signal    for  the  commencement  of  devastations  :  and. 

XII. 

— ~  within  a  few  weeks,  the  war  extended  over  a  space  of 
1676.  nearly  three  hundred  miles.  But  in  Maine  it  was  a 
border  warfare,  growing  out  of  a  consciousness  of 
wrongs,  and  a  thirst  for  revenge.  Sailors  had  com- 
mitted outrages,  and  the  Indians  avenged  the  crinx  s 
of  a  corrupt  ship's  crew  on  the  villages.  There  was 
no  general  rising  of  the  Abenakis,  or  Eastern  tribes, 
no  gatherings  of  large  bodies  of  men.  Of  the  English 
settlements  nearly  one  half  were  destroyed  in  detail ; 
the  inhabitants  were  either  driven  away,  killed,  or 
carried  into  captivity ;  for  covetousness  sometimes 
provoked  to  mercy,  by  exciting  the  hope  of  a  ransom. 

The  escape  of  ANNE  BRACKETT,  grand-daughter  of 
George  Cleeves,  the  first  settler  of  Portland,  was  the 
marvel  of  that  day.  Her  family  had  been  taken  cap- 
tives  at  the  sack  of  Falmouth.  When  her  captors 
hastened  forward  to  further  ravages  on  the  Kennebeck, 
she  was  able  to  loiter  behind ;  the  eye  of  the  mother 
discerned  the  wreck  of  a  birchen  bark,  which,  with 
needle  and  thread  from  a  deserted  house,  she  patched 
and  repaired ;  then,  with  her  husband,  a  negro  servant, 
and  her  infant  child,  she  trusted  herself  to  the  sea  in 
the  tattered  canoe,  which  had  neither  sail  nor  mast, 
and  was  like  a  feather  on  the  waves.  She  crossed 
Casco  Bay,  and,  arriving  at  Black  Point,  where  she 
feared  to  find  Indians,  and  at  best  could  only  have 
hoped  to  find  a  solitude,  how  great  was  her  joy,  as 
she  discovered  a  vessel  from  Piscataqua,  that  had  just 
sought  an  anchoring-place  in  the  harbor ! * 

The  surrender  of  Acadia  to  the  French  had  made 
the  struggle  more  arduous ;  for  the  Eastern  Indians 

1  Hubbard's   Indian  Wars,  234.     Compare  Church,  166.   MS.  Letters 
Willis's  Portland,  i.  143,  147, 155.    from  Willis  and  Farmer. 


THE   CONTROVERSY   WITH   CHARLES   II.   RENEWED.  Ill 

obtained   supplies  of  arms  from   the  French  on.  the  CHAP 

XII 

Penobscot.     To  defeat  the  savage  enemy  effectually,  — -v-w 
the  Mohawks  were  invited  to  engage  in  the  war  ;  a  few  1677 
of  them  took  up  the  hatchet :    but  distance  rendered 
cooperation  impossible.    After  several  fruitless  attempts 
at  treaties,  peace  was  finally  established  by  Andros  as  April 
governor  of  Pemaquid,  but  on  terms  which  acknowl- 
edged the  superiority  of  the  Indians.     On  their  part, 
the  restoration  of  prisoners  and  the  security  of  English 
towns  were  stipulated ;  in   return,   the  English  were 
to  pay  annually,   as  a  quit-rent,  a  peck   of  corn  for 
every  English  family.1 

The  defence  of  New  England  had  been  made  by  1676 
its  own  resources.  Jealous  of  independence,  it  never 
applied  to  the  parent  country  foi  assistance ;  and  the 
earl  of  Anglesey  reproached  the  people  with  their  public 
spirit.  "  You  are  poor,"  said  he,  "  and  yet  proud." 
The  English  ministry,  contributing  nothing  to  repair 
colonial  losses,  made  no  secret  of  its  intention  to 
"  reassume  the  government  of  Massachusetts  into  its 
own  hands;"2  and,  before  a  single  season  had  effaced 
the  traces  of  the  blood  of  her  sons,  while  the  ground 
was  still  wet  with  the  blood  of  her  yeomanry,  the 
wrecks  of  her  villages  were  still  smoking,  and  the 
Indian  war-cry  was  yet  ringing  in  the  forests  of  Maine, 
Edward  Randolph,  the  English  emissary,  arrived  in  June 
New  England. 

The  messenger  and  message  were  icceived  with 
coldness.  The  governor  avowed  ignorance  of  the 
officer  whose  signature  was  affixed  to  the  letter  from 
the  king,  and  denied  the  right  of  the  king,  or  of  par- 
liament, to  bind  the  colony  by  laws  adverse  to  its 

1  Williamson,  i.   553       NeaFs         2  Burk's  Virginia,  ii.   Appendix, 
N.  E.  &c.  &c.  xxxvii. 


I  12  THE   CONTROVERSY    WITH   CHARLES   II    RENEWED 

CHAP,  interests.     "  The    king,"   said    the    honest    Leverett, 
— ~<~  "  can  in  reason  do  no  less  than  let  us  enjoy  our  liberties 
1676   anc|  tjade,  for  we  have  made  this  large  plantation  in 
the  wilderness  at  our  own  charge,  without  any  con- 
tribution from  the  crown." 

Randolph,  at  once  the  agent  for  Mason,  and  the 
messenger  from  the  privy  council,  belonged  to  that 
class  of  hungry  adventurers  with  whom  America 
ultimately  became  so  familiar.  His  zeal  led  him,  in 
the  course  of  nine  years,  to  make  eight  voyages  to 
America;  and  now,  on  his  return  to  England,  after  a 
residence  of  but  six  weeks  in  the  New  World,  that  he 
might  excite  the  office-seekers  in  the  court  of  Charles 
II.,  he  exaggerated  the  population  of  the  country  four- 
fold, and  its  wealth  in  a  still  greater  proportion.  His 
statements  deserve  little  confidence ; l  yet  they  made 
the  English  ministry  more  eager  to  narrow  the  terri- 
tory, cripple  the  trade,  and  recall  the  charter  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

The  colony,  reluctantly  yielding  to  the  direct  com 
mands  of  Charles  II.,  resolved  to  send  William  Stough- 
ton  and  Peter  Bulkley  as  envoys  to  England  ;  but, 
agreeably  to  the  advice  of  the  elders,  their  powers 
were  circumscribed  "  with  the  utmost  care  and 
caution." 

In  their  memorial  respecting  the  extent  ot  their 
territory,  the  court  represented  their  peculiar  unhappi- 
ness,  to  be  required,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  to 
maintain  before  courts  of  law  a  title  to  the  provinces, 
and  to  dispute  with  a  savage  foe  the  possession  of 
dismal  deserts. 

l«7?        Remonstrance  was  of  no  avail.     A  committee  of  the 
privy  council,  which  examined  all  the  charters,  refused 

»  Hutch.  Coll.  503,  &c.  &c.    Hutch.  Hist  i.  280,  &c. 


PURCHASE   OF  MAINE   BY  MASSACHUSETTS.  113 

to  decide  on  the  claims  oi  the  resident  settlers  to  the  CHAP 

XII 

land  which  they  occupied,  but  denied  to  Massachusetts  ^-v-L 
the  right  of  jurisdiction  over  Maine  and  New  Hamp-  1677 
shire.     The  decision  was  so  manifestly  in  conformity 
with  English  law,  that  the  colonial  agents  attempted 
no  serious  defence. 

The  provinces  being  thus  severed  from  the  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts,  King  Charles  was  willing  to 
secure  them  as  an  appanage  for  his  reputed  son,  the 
kind-hearted,  but  worthless  duke  of  Monmouth,  the 
Absalom  of  that  day,  whose  weakness  was  involved  in 
a  dishonest  opposition  to  his  father,  and  whom  frivolous 
ambition  "at  last  conducted  to  the  scaffold.  It  was 
thought  that  the  united  provinces  would  furnish  a  noble 
principality  with  an  immediate  and  increasing  revenue. 
But  before  the  monarch,  whom  extravagance  had 
impoverished,  could  resolve  on  a  negotiation,  Massa- 
chusetts, through  the  agency  of  a  Boston  merchant, 
obtained  possession  of  the  claims  of  Gorges,  by  a 
purchase  and  regular  assignment.  The  price  paid  was  May 
£1250 — about  six  thousand  dollars. 

It  was  never  doubted  that  a  proprietary  could 
alienate  the  soil ;  it  was  subsequently  questioned 
whether  the  rights  of  government  could  be  made  a 
subject  of  traffic. 

This  assignment  was  the  cause  of  a  series  of  rela- 
tions, which,  in  part,  continue  to  the  present  day.  In 
a  pecuniary  point  of  view,  no  transaction  could  have 
been  for  Massachusetts  more  injurious ;  for  it  made 
her  a  frontier  state,  and  gave  her  the  most  extensive 
and  most  dangerous  frontier  to  defend. 

But  Massachusetts  did  not,  at  this  time,  come  into 
possession  of  the  whole  territory  which  now  consti- 
tutes the  state  of  Maine.  France,  under  the  treaty 

VOL.  II.  15 


I  14  ORGANIZATION  OF  A   GOVERNMENT  IN  MAINE. 

CHAP  of  Breda,  claimed  and  occupied  the  district  from  St 
— ^  Croix  to  the  Penobscot ;  the  duke  of  York  held  the 
tract  between  the  Penobscot  and  the  Kennebeck, 
claiming,  indeed,  to  own  the  whole  tract  between  the 
Kennebeck  and  the  St.  Croix ;  while  Massachusetts 
was  proprietary  only  of  the  district  between  the  Ken- 
nebeck and  the  Piscataqua. 

A  novel  form  of  political  institution  ensued.  Massa- 
chusetts, in  her  corporate  capacity,  was  become  the 
lord  proprietary  of  Maine ;  the  little  republic  on  the 
banks  of  the  Charles  was  the  feudal  sovereign  of  this 
eastern  lordship.  Maine  had  thus  far  been  represented 
in  the  Massachusetts  house  of  representatives ;  hence- 
forward she  was  to  be  governed  as  a  province,  accord- 
ing to  the  charter  to  Gorges.  In  obedience  to  an 
ordinance  of  the  general  court,  the  governor  and 
680  assistants  ot  Massachusetts  proceeded  to  organize  the 
government  of  Maine.  The  president  and  council 
were  appointed  by  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  ; 
at  the  same  time,  a  popular  legislative  branch  was 
established,  composed  of  deputies  from  the  several 
towns  in  the  district.  Danforth,  the  president,  was  a 
man  of  worth  and  republican  principles  ;  yet  the  pride 
of  the  province  was  offended  by  its  subordination  ;  the 
old  religious  differences  had  not  lost  their  influence ; 
and  royalists  and  churchmen  prayed  for  the  interpo- 
sition of  the  king.1  Massachusetts  was  compelled  to 
employ  force  to  assert  its  sovereignty,  which,  nevertlu, 
less,  was  exercised  with  moderation  and  justice.2 

1  Sullivan's  Maine,  384.     Wil-  been    mentioned    in    the    origina, 
liamson,  i.  557,  &c.     Hutch.  ColL  grant."    An  assembly  was  regularly 
Mass.  Records,  iv.  held.    Williamson's  Maine,  i.  5(56, 

2  Chalmers,   488 :    "  No  assem-  &c.    The  reason  assigned  is  as  un- 
bly,  of  which  the  representatives  of  founded  as  the  statement  in  Chal- 
the  people  composed  a  constituent  mere.     In   the  grant  of  1639,   the 
part,  was  allowed  because  none  had  assent  of  the  majority  of  the  free 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE   A   ROYAL   PROVINCE.  I  l£ 

The  change  of  government  in  New  Hampshire  was  CHAP 
less  quietly  effected.     On  the  first  apprehension  that  - — *- 
the    claim   of  Mason    would    be    revived,   the    infant  1675 
people,  assembling  in  town-meetings,  expressed  their 
content  with  the  government  of  Massachusetts. 

But  the  popular  wish  availed  little  in  the  decision  of 
a  question  of  law ;  the  patent  of  Mason  was  duly  inves 
tigated  in  England ;  it  was  found  that  he  had  no  righ 
to  jurisdiction   over   New   Hampshire;  the    unappro-  1677 
priated  lands  were  allowed  to  belong  to  him ;  but  the 
rights  of  the  settlers  to  the  soil  which  they  actually 
occupied,  were  reserved  for  litigation  in  colonial  courts.1 

To  further  that  end,  a  new  jurisdiction  was  estab-  1679 
lished ;   New  Hampshire  was  separated  from  Massa-     %? 
chusetts,  and  organized  as  a  royal  province.     It  was 
the    first   royal   government  ever  established  in  New 
England.      The   king,  reserving  a  negative  voice   to 
himself  and  his  officers,  engaged  to  continue  the  privi- 
lege of  an  assembly,  unless  he  or  his  heirs  should  deem 
that  privilege  "  an  inconvenience." 

The  persons  first  named  by  the  king  to  the  offices 
of  president  and  council,  were  residents  of  the  colony, 
and  friends  to  the  colonists  ;  but,  perceiving  that  their 
appointment  had  no  other  object  than  to  render  the 
transition  to  a  new  form  of  government  less  intolerable, 
they  accepted  office  reluctantly.  .+.••• 

At   length   a   general    assembly   was   convened   at  1680 
Portsmouth.    Its  letter 2  to  Massachusetts  is  a  testimony     ig, 
of  its  gratitude.     "  We  acknowledge  your  care  for  us," 
— it  was  thus  that  the  feeble  colony  addressed  its  more 

holders  is  required  for  all  acts  of  Maine    Hist.    Collections,   i.    302. 

legislation.    Hazard,  i.  445.     It  is  1  Compare     Letter      of      King 

true,  the  proprietary  supremacy  of  Charles,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxi.  7& 

Massachusetts  was  unpalatable  to  2  Adams's   Portsmouth,  65—67 

many.       Willis's     Portland,  i.  158.  Belknap. 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE   A   ROYAL  PROVINCE. 

-HAP.  powerful  neighbor, — "  we  thankfully  acknowledge  your 
-~v*>-  kindness,  while  we  dwelt  under  your  shadow,  owning 
1   ourselves  deeply  obliged  that,  on  our  earnest  request, 
you  took  us  under  your  government,  and  ruled  us  well. 
If  there  be  opportunity  for  us  to  be  any  wise  service- 
able to  you,  we  shall  show  how  ready  we  are  to  cm- 
brace  it.     Wishing  the  presence  of   God  to  be   with 
you,  we  crave  the  benefit  of  your  prayers  on  us,  who 
are  separated  from  our  brethren." 

The  claims  of  affection  having  been  acknowledged, 
the  colony  proceeded  to  assert  its  rights  by  a  solemn 
decree,  the  first  in  their  new  code  ;  "  No  act,  imposi- 
tion, law,  or  ordinance,  shall  be  valid,  unless  made  by 
the  assembly  and  approved  by  the  people."  Thus  did 
New  Hampshire  seize  the  earliest  moment  of  its 
separate  existence,  to  express  the  great  principle  of 
self-government,  and  take  her  place  by  the  side  of 
Massachusetts  and  Virginia.  When  the  code  of  the 
infant  government  was  transmitted  to  England,  it  was 
disapproved  both  for  style  and  matter ;  and  its  provis- 
ions were  rejected  as  incongruous  and  absurd.  Nor 
was  Mason  successful  in  establishing  his  claims  to  the 
soil.  The  colonial  government  protected  the  colonists, 
and  restrained  his  exactions. 

Hastening  to  England  to  solicit  a  change,  the  pro- 
prietary was  allowed  to  make  such  arrangement  as 
promised  auspicious  results  to  his  own  interests.  The 
scenes  that  occurred  are  instructive.  Mason,  a  party 
in  suits  to  be  commenced,  was  authorized  to  select  the 
person  to  be  appointed  governor.  He  found  a  fit 
agent  in  Edward  Cranfield,  a  man  who  had  no  object 
in  banishing  himself  to  the  wilds  of  America,  but  to 
wrest  a  fortune  from  the  sawyers  and  lumber-dealers 
of  New  Hampshire.  He  avowed  his  purpose  openly ; 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE   A   ROYAL   PROVINCE.  117 

and  the  moral  tone  of  that  day  esteemed  it  no  dishonor.  CHAP 

XII 

But  he  insisted  on  good  security.     By  a  deed  enrolled  -*•»— 
in  chancery,  Mason  surrendered   to  the  king  one  fifth  *682 
part  of  all  quit-rents,  for  the  support  of  the  govern-     25. 
or,  and  gave  to  Cranfield  a  mortgage   of   the  whole 
province  for  twenty-one  years,  as  collateral  security  for 
the  payment  of  his  salary.     Thus   invested  with  an 
ample  royal  commission,1  with  the  promise  of  a  fixed 
salary,  a  fifth  of  all  quit-rents,  a  mortgage  of  the  prov- 
ince,   and    the    exclusive    right    to    the    anticipated 
abundant  harvest  of  fines   and    forfeitures,  Cranfield 
deemed  his  fortune  secure,  and,  relinquishing  a  profit- 
able   employment    in    England,    embarked    for    the 
banks  of  the  Piscataqua. 

But  the  first  assembly  which  he  convened   dispelled    **°v< 
all  his  golden  visions  of  an  easy  acquisition  of  fortune. 
To  humor  the  governor,  the  "  rugged  "  legislators  voted 
him  a  gratuity  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  which 
the  needy  adventurer  greedily  accepted  ;  but  they  would 

1  fift  *3 

not  yield  their  liberties  ;    and  the  governor  in  anger    ja° 
dissolved  the  assembly.  20 

The  dissolution  of  an  assembly  was  a  novel  pro- 
cedure in  New  England.  Such  a  thing  had  till  now 
been  unheard  of.  Popular  discontent  became  ex- 
treme ;  and  a  crowd  of  rash  men  raised  the  cry  for 
"  liberty  and  reformation."  The  leader,  Edward 
Gove,  an  unlettered  enthusiast,  was  confined  in  irons, 
and  condemned  to  the  death  that  barbarous  laws  de- 
nounced against  treason,  and,  having  been  transport- 
ed to  England,  was  for  three  years  kept  a  prisoner  in 
the  tower  of  London. 

The  lawsuits  about  land  were  multiplied.  Packed 
luries  and  partial  judges  settled  questions  rapidly  ;  but 

i  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  v.  232. 


118  NEW   HAMPSHIRE  A   ROYAL   PROVINCE. 

JHAP  Mason  derived  no  benefit  from  a  decision  in  his  favor , 

-\  1 1 . 

— ~v^  for  he  could  neither  get  possession  of  the  estates,  nor 

1683.  fyjd  a  purchaser. 

Meantime,  Cranfield,  with  a  subservient  council, 
began  to  exercise  powers  of  legislation  ;  and,  like  a 
greedy  tenant  whose  lease  is  expiring,  he  still  hoped  to 
amass  a  fortune  by  taxes  and  arbitrary  fees  of  office 
Did  the  towns  privately  send  an  agent  to  England, 
Cranfield  would  tolerate  no  complaints  ;  and  Vaughan, 
who  had  been  active  in  obtaining  depositions,  was 
required  to  find  securities  for  good  behavior.  He 
refused,  declaring  that  he  had  broken  no  law ;  and  the 
governor  immediately  imprisoned  him. 

1 684  Cranfield  still  sighed  for  money ;  and  now  stooping  to 
falsehood,  and  hastily  calling  an  assembly,  on  a  vague 
rumor  of  an  invasion,  he  demanded  a  sudden  supply  of 
the  means  of  defence.  The  representatives  of  New 
Hampshire  would  not  be  hastened ;  they  took  time  to 
consider ;  and,  after  debate,  they  negatived  the  bill 
which  the  governor  had  prepared. 

Cranfield  next  resolved  to  intimidate  the  clergy, 
and  forbade  the  usual  exercise  of  church  discipline. 
In  Portsmouth,  Moody,  the  minister,  replied  to  his 
threats  by  a  sermon,  and  the  church  was  inflexible. 

Cranfield  next  invoked  the  aid  of  the  ecclesiastical 
laws  of  England,  which  he  asserted  were  in  force 
in  the  colony.  The  people  were  ordered  to  keep 
Christmas  as  a  festival,  and  to  fast  on  the  thirtieth  of 
January.  But  the  capital  stroke  of  policy  was  an 
order,  that  all  persons  should  be  admitted  to  the  Lord's 
supper  as  freely  as  in  the  Episcopal  or  Lutheran 
church,  and  that  the  forms  of  the  English  liturgy  should 
in  certain  cases  be  adopted.  The  order  was  disre- 
garded 


NEW   HAMPSHIRE   A   ROYAL   PROVINCE.  119 

That  nothing  might  be  wanting,  the  governor  himself  CHAP 
appointed    a   day,    on   which  he  claimed  to    receive  ^^- 


the  elements  at  the  hands  of  Moody,  after  the  forms 
of  the  English  church.  Moody  refused  ;  was  prose- 
cuted, condemned,  and  imprisoned.  Religious  worship 
was  almost  entirely  broken  up  in  the  colony.  But  the 
people  did  not  yield  ;  and  Cranfield,  vexed  at  the 
stubbornness  of  the  clergy,  gave  information  in  Eng- 
land, that,  "  while  the  clergy  were  allowed  to  preach, 
no  true  allegiance  could  be  found."1  It  had  long  been 
evident,  "  there  could  be  no  quiet,  till  the  factious 
preachers  were  turned  out  of  the  province." 

One  more  attempt  was  made  to  raise  an  income,  t>y 
means  of  taxes,  imposed  by  the  vote  of  the  subservient 
council.  That  the  people  might  willingly  pay  them, 
a  rumor  of  a  war  with  the  Eastern  Indians  was  spread 
abroad  ;  and  Cranfield  made  a  visit  to  New  York, 
under  pretence  of  concerting  measures  with  the  gov- 
ernor of  that  province.  The  English  ministry  was 
also  informed  that  his  majesty's  service  required  the 
presence  of  a  ship-of-war.  The  committee  of  planta- 
tions had  been  warned  that  "  without  some  visible 
force  to  keep  the  people  of  New  Hampshire  under,  it 
would  be  a  difficult  or  impossible  thing  to  execute  his 
majesty's  commands,  or  the  laws  of  trade." 

But  the  yeomanry  were  not  terrified  ;  illegal  taxes 
could  not  be  gathered  ;  associations  were  formed  for 
mutual  support  in  resisting  their  collection.  At  Exe- 
ter, the  sheriff  was  driven  ofT  with  clubs,  and  the 
farmers'  wives  had  prepared  hot  water  to  scald  his 
officer,  if  he  had  attempted  to  attach  property  in  the 
house.  At  Hampton,  he  was  beaten,  robbed  of  his 
sword,  seated  upon  a  horse,  with  a  rope  round  his 

i  Chalmers,  497,  510. 


120  NEW   HAMPSHIRE   A    ROYAL   PROVINCE. 

CHAP   neck,  and  conveyed  out  of  the  province.     If  rioters 
— ^  were  committed,  they  were  rescued   by  a  new  riot , 
1684    if  the  troop  of  horse  of  the  militia  were  ordered  out, 
not  a  man  obeyed  the  summons. 

Cranfield,  in  despair,  wrote  imploringly  to  the  gov- 
ernment in  England,  "  I  shall  esteem  it  the  greatest 
happiness  in  the  world  to  be  allowed  to  remove  from 
these  unreasonable  people.  They  cavil  at  the  royal 
commission,  and  not  at  my  person.  No  one  will  be 
accepted  by  them,  who  puts  the  king's  commands  in 
execution." 

The  conduct  of  Cranfield  met  with  the  entire  ap 
probation  of  the  lords  of  trade  ;  he   was  allowed   to 
withdraw  from  the  province ;  but  the  government  in 
England  had  no  design  of  ameliorating  the  political 
condition  of  the  colonists. 

The  character  of  New  Hampshire,  as  displayed  in 
this  struggle  for  freedom,  remained  unchanged.  It 
was  ever  esteemed  in  England  "  factious  in  its  econo- 
my, affording  no  exemplary  precedents  "  to  the  friends 
of  arbitrary  power. 

Massachusetts  might,  perhaps,  still  have  defied  the 
king,  and  escaped  or  overawed  the  privy  council ;  but 
the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of  England,  fearing 
the  colony  as  their  rival,  possessed  intelligence  to 
discern  how  their  monopoly  might  be  sustained,  and 
perseverance  to  press  steadily  towards  their  object. 
\fif5  Their  complaints  had  been  received  with  favor;  their 
selfish  reasoning  was  heard  with  a  willingness  to  be 
convinced  ;  and  the  English  statesmen  who  maintained 
the  absolute  sovereignty  of  parliament,  must  have 
esteemed  Massachusetts  without  excuse. 
ld76.  The  agents  of  Massachusetts  had  brought  with  them 
no  sufficient  power;  an  amnesty  for  the  past  would 


THE   LIBERTIES   OF   MASSACHUSETTS   IN  DANGER.  121 

readily  have  been   conceded  ;    for  the  future,  it  was  CHAP. 
resolved  to  reduce  Massachusetts  to  "  a  more  palpable  —-v-L 
dependence."      That   this  might  be  done   with   the  1670. 
consent  of  the   colony,  the  agents  were  enjoined    to 
procure  larger  powers.     But  no  larger  powers  were 
gi  anted. 

It  was  against  fearful  odds  that  Massachusetts  con- 
tinued the  struggle.  All  England  was  united.  What- 
ever party  triumphed,  the  mercantile  interest  would 
readily  procure  an  enforcement  of  the  laws  of  trade. 
"  The  country's  neglect  of  the  Acts  of  Navigation," 
wrote  the  agents,  "  has  been  the  most  unhappy 
neglect.  Without  a  compliance  in  that  matter,  nothing 
can  be  expected  but  a  total  breach."  "  All  the  storms 
of  displeasure  "  would  be  let  loose. 

It  was  not,  therefore,  a  surprise,  when  the  com- 
mittee of  plantations  raised  the  question,  whether  the 
original  charter  had  any  legal  entity.  The  crown, 
however,  would  not  deny  the  validity  of  the  patent, 
but  suggested  the  avoiding  it  by  a  quo  warranto. 

The  colony  resolved,  if  it  must  fall,  to  fall  with 
dignity.  Religion  had  been  the  motive  of  the  settle- 
ment ;  religion  was  now  its  counsellor.  The  fervors 
of  the  most  ardent  devotion  were  kindled  ;  a  more 
than  usually  solemn  form  of  religious  observance  was 
adopted  ;  a  synod  of  all  the  churches  in  Massachusetts 
was  convened,  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  the  dangers 
to  New  England  liberty,  and  the  mode  of  removing 
the  evils.  Historians  have  mentioned  this  incident 
with  levity ;  no  more  fit  mode  could  have  been  devised 
to  awaken  the  attention  of  every  individual  in  the 
commonwealth  to  a  consideration  of  the  subject. 

Meantime    the    general  court    had    enacted    several  1578, 
laws,  partially  removing  the  ground  of  complaint.    But  1679 

VOL.  II.  16 


122  THE   LIBERTIES  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  IN   DANGER 

CHAP,  they  related  to  forms,  rather  than  to  realities.  High 
— --  treason  was  made  a  capital  offence;  the  oath  of  alle- 
ifi-jo'  giance  was  required  ;  the  king's  arms  were  put  up  in 

A  O  /  »7  • 

the  court-house.  But  it  was  more  difficult  to  conform 
to  the  laws  of  trade.  The  colony  was  unwilling  to 
forfeit  its  charter  and  its  religious  liberties  on  a  pecu- 
niary question  ;  and  yet,  to  acknowledge  its  readin*  s« 
to  submit  to  an  act  of  parliament,  was  regarded  as  a 
cession  of  the  privilege  of  independent  legislation.  It 
devised,  therefore,  an  expedient.  It  declared  that 
"  the  Acts  of  Navigation  were  an  invasion  of  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  subjects  of  his  majesty  in  the 
colony,  they  not  being  represented  in  parliament." 
"  The  laws  of  England,"  they  add,  "  do  not  reach 
America."  In  connection  with  this  declaration,  the 
general  court  gave  validity  to  the  laws  of  navigation 
by  an  act  of  its  own. 

Such  is  the  renewed  direct  denial,  on  the  part  of  a 
colony,  of  the  supremacy  of  parliament,  on  the  ground 
of  a  want  of  representation.  Massachusetts  adopted 
towards  Charles  II.  the  same  views  which  she  had 
successfully  avowed  to  the  English  nation  in  the  days 
of  the  Long  Parliament. 

The  troubles  connected  with  the  popish  plot  de- 
layed the  settlement  of  the  affairs  of  New  England. 
679.  The  agents,  Stoughton  and  Bulkley,  returned  in  1679, 
Dec.  and  reached  Boston  in  December.  With  them  came 
Randolph,  now  appointed  an  officer  of  the  customs. 
The  new  command  of  the  king,  that  other  agents 
should  be  sent  over  with  unlimited  powers,  was  disre- 
garded. It  was  evident  the  subversion  of  the  charter 
was  designed. 

Twice  did  Charles  II.  remonstrate  against  the  diso- 
bedience of  his  subjects  ;  twice  did  Randolph  cross  the 


MASSACHUSETTS   DEFENDS   ITS   CHARTER.  123 

Atlantic,  and  return  to  England,  to  assist  in  directing  CHAF 
the    government    against  Massachusetts.      The  com-  — v-L 
mon wealth  was  inflexible.      At  length,  in  February,  1682 
1682,  the  aspect  of  affairs  in  England  rendered  delay 
more    dangerous ;    and    Dudley   and    Richards    were 
selected  as  agents.      Yet,  while  the  prayers  of  the 
whole  commonwealth  went  up  for  their  safety,  and 
..ie  safety  of  the  patent,  they  were  expressly  enjoined 
to  consent  to  nothing  that  should  infringe  the  privileges 
of  the  government  established  under  the  charter.     A 
singular  method  was  also  attempted.     In  the  English 
court  every  thing  was  venal.     France  had  succeeded 
in  bribing  the  king  to  betray  the  political  interests  of 
England ;    Massachusetts   was   willing   to    bribe    the 
monarch  into  clemency  towards  its  liberties. 

The  commission  of  the  deputies  was  not  acceptable. 
They  were  ordered  to  obtain  full  powers  for  the  entire  1682 
regulation  of  the  government,  and  the  threat  of  a  judi-  ep 
cial  process  was  renewed.  The  agents  represented 
the  condition  of  the  colony  as  desperate.  A  general 
war  against  corporations  was  begun ;  many  cities  in 
England  had  surrendered.  Was  it  not  safest  for  the 
colony  to  decline  a  contest,  and  throw  itself  upon  the 
favor  or  forbearance  of  the  king  ?  Such  was  the 
theme  of  universal  discussion  throughout  the  colony  ; 
the  common  people  spoke  of  it  at  their  firesides ;  the 
topic  went  with  them  to  church ;  it  entered  into  their 
prayers  ;  it  filled  the  sermons  of  the  ministers  ;  and, 
finally,  Massachusetts  resolved,  in  a  manner  that 
showed  it  to  be  distinctly  the  sentiment  of  the  people, 
to  resign  the  territory  of  Maine,  which  was  held  by 
purchase,  but  not  to  concede  one  liberty  or  one  privi- 
lege which  was  held  by  charter.  If  liberty  was  to  re- 
reive  its  death-blow,  better  that  it  should  die  by  the 


124  MASSACHUSETTS   DEFENDS   ITS   CHARTER. 

CHAP,  violence    and  injustice  of  others,  than  by  their  own 

— v-L  weakness. 

The  message  closed  the  duties  of  the  agents.     A  quo 

1683.  warranto  was  issued;  Massachusetts  was  arraigned 
before  an  English  tribunal,  under  judges  holding  their 
office  at  the  pleasure  of  the  crown  ;  and  Randolph, 
Oct  the  hated  messenger,  arrived  with  the  writ.  At  the 
same  time,  a  declaration  from  the  king  asked  once 
more  for  submission,  promising  as  a  reward  the  royal 
favor,  and  the  fewest  alterations  in  the  charter  consist- 
ent with  the  support  of  a  royal  government. 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  had  been  close  ob- 
servers of  events  in  England.  They  had  seen  a  popu- 
lar party,  of  which  Shaftesbury  assumed  the  guidance, 
and  of  which  the  house  of  commons  was  the  scene  of 
victories,  rise,  act,  and  become  defeated.  They  had 
seen  Charles  II.  gradually  establish  despotic  power. 
They  had  seen  the  people  of  England  apparently 
acquiescing  in  the  subjection  of  parliament.  An  in- 
surrection had  indeed  been  planned  ;  the  doctrine  had 
indeed  been  whispered,  that  resistance  to  oppression 
was  lawful.  But  the  doctrine  had  been  expiated  by 
the  blood  of  Sidney  and  of  Russell ;  and  the  colonists 
2if  knew,  that,  on  the  very  day  of  the  death  of  Russell, 
the  university  of  Oxford,  recalling  the  days  of  Henry 
VIII.,  and  asserting  an  historical  fact  rather  than  a 
principle,  had  declared  "  submission  and  obedience, 
clear,  absolute,  and  without  exception,  to  be  the  badge 
and  character  of  the  church  of  England."  They  knew 
that  many  cities  of  England  had  surrendered  their  char- 
ters ;  that  London  itself,  the  metropolis  which  had  shel- 
tered Hampden  against  Charles  I.,  had  found  resistance 
ineffectual ;  and  to  render  submission  in  Massachusetts 
easy,  by  showing  that  opposition  was  desperate,  two 


SHALL  THE  CHARTER  BE   SURRENDERED?  125 

hundred   copies  of  the  proceedings  against    London,  CHAP 
were  sent  over  to  be  dispersed   among   the    people.  -~^~ 
The  governor  and  assistants,  the  patrician  branch  of  1683. 
the  government,  were  persuaded  of  the   hopelessness 
of  further  resistance ;  even  a  tardy  surrender  of  the 
charter  might  conciliate  the  monarch.     They,  there-   Nov. 
fore,  resolved   to  remind  the  king  of  his  promises,  and 
"  not  to  contend  with  his  majesty  in  a  court  of  law ;" 
the}  would  "  send  agents,  empowered  to  receive  his 
majesty's  commands." 

The  magistrates  referred  this  vote  to  "  their  brethren 
the  deputies"  for  concurrence.  During  a  full  fort- 
night the  subject  was  debated,  that  a  decision  might 
be  made  in  harmony  with  the  people. 

"  Ought  the  government  of  Massachusetts,"  thus  it 
was  argued,  "  submit  to  the  pleasure  of  the  court  as  to 
alteration  of  their  charter  ?  Submission  would  be  an 
offence  against  the  majesty  of  Heaven  ;  the  religion  of 
the  people  of  New  England  and  the  court's  pleasure 
cannot  consist  together.  By  submission  Massachusetts 
will  gain  nothing.  The  court  design  an  essential 
alteration,  destructive  to  the  vitals  of  the  charter. 
The  corporations  in  England  that  have  made  an  entire 
resignation,  have  no  advantage  over  those  that  have 
stood  a  suit  in  law  ;  but  if  we  maintain  a  suit,  though 
we  should  be  condemned,  we  may  bring  the  matter  to 
chancery  or  to  a  parliament,  and  in  time  recover  all 
again.  We  ought  not  to  act  contrary  to  that  way,  in 
which  God  hath  owned  our  worthy  predecessors,  who, 
in  1638,  when  there  was  a  quo  warranlo  against  the 
charter,  durst  not  submit.  In  1664,  they  did  not  sub- 
mit to  the  commissioners.  We,  their  successors,  should 
walk  in  their  steps,  and  so  trust  in  the  God  of  our 
fathers,  that  we  shall  see  his  salvation.  Submission 
would  gratify  our  adversaries  and  grieve  our  friends. 


126  SHALL  THE  CHARTER   BE   SURRENDERED? 

SHAP.  Our  enemies  know  it  will  sound  ill  in  the  world,  for 

XII. 

-^4-  them  to  take  away  the  liberties  of  a  poor  people  of 
God  in  a  wilderness.  A  resignation  will  bring  slavery 
upon  us  sooner  than  otherwise  it  would  be  ;  and  will 
grieve  our  friends  in  other  colonies,  whose  eyes  are 
now  upon  New  England,  expecting  that  the  people 
there  will  not,  through  fear,  give  a  pernicious  example 
unto  others. 

"  Blind  obedience  to  the  pleasure  of  the  court  can- 
not be  without  great  sin,  and  incurring  the  high  dis- 
pleasure of  the  King  of  Kings.  Submission  would  be 
contrary  unto  that  which  has  been  the  unanimous 
advice  of  the  ministers,  given  after  a  solemn  day  of 
prayer.  The  ministers  of  God  in  New  England  have 
more  of  the  spirit  of  John  Baptist  in  them,  than  now, 
when  a  storm  hath  overtaken  them,  to  be  reeds, 
shaken  with  the  wind.  The  priests  were  to  be  the 
first  that  set  their  foot  in  the  waters,  and  there  to 
stand  till  the  danger  be  past.  Of  all  men,  they  should 
be  an  example  to  the  Lord's  people,  of  faith,  courage, 
and  constancy.  Unquestionably,  if  the  blessed  Cot- 
ton, Hooker,  Davenport,  Mather,  Shepherd,  Mitchell, 
were  now  living,  they  would,  as  is  evident  from  their 
printed  books,  say,  Do  not  sin  in  giving  away  the 
inheritance  of  your  fathers. 

"  Nor  ought  we  submit  without  the  consent  of  the 
body  of  the  people.  But  the  freemen  and  church- 
members  throughout  New  England  will  never  consent 
hereunto.  Therefore  the  government  may  not  do  it. 

"  The  civil  liberties  of  New  England  are  part  of 
the  inheritance  of  their  fathers ;  and  shall  we  give  that 
inheritance  away  ?  Is  it  objected  that  we  shall  be 
exposed  to  great  sufferings  ?  Better  suffer  than  sin. 
It  is  better  to  trust  the  God  of  our  fathers,  than  to 
put  confidence  in  princes.  If  we  suffer  because  we 


THE   CHARTER   OF  MASSACHUSETTS  ABROGATED. 

dare  not  comply  with  the  wills  of  men  against  the  CHAP 
will  of  God,  we  suffer  in  a  good  cause,  and  shall  be  ^v-L 
accounted  martyrs  in  the  next  generation  and  at  the  1683 
great  day." l 

The  decision  of  the  colony,  by  its  representatives,  i 
on  record.     "  The  deputies  consent  not,  but  adhere  to   Nov 
their  former  bills." 

Addresses  were  forwarded  to  the  king,  urging  for- 
bearance ;  but  entreaty  and  remonstrance   were  vain.  1681 
A  scire  facias  was  issued  in  England ;  and  before  the 
colony  could  act  upon  it,  just  one  year  and  six  days 
after  the   judgment  against  the  city  of  London,  the 
charter  was  conditionally  adjudged  to  be  forfeited  ;  and     ig.e 
the  judgment  was  confirmed  on   the  first  day  of  the 
Michaelmas    term.       A   copy   of  the  judgment   was  l685 
received  in  Boston  in  July  of  the  following  year.  2. 

Thus  fell  the  charter,  which  the  fleet  of  Winthrop 
had  brought  to  the  shores  of  New  England,  which  had 
been  cherished  with  anxious  care  through  every  vicis- 
situde, and  on  which  the  fabric  of  New  England  lib- 
erties had  rested.  There  was  now  no  barrier  between 
the  people  of  Massachusetts  and  the  absolute  will  of 
the  court  of  England.  Was  religion  in  danger  ?  Was 
landed  property  secure  ?  Would  commercial  enter- 
prise be  paralyzed  by  restrictions  ?  Was  New  Eng- 
land destined  to  learn  from  its  own  experience  the 
nature  of  despotism  ?  Gloomy  forebodings  overspread 
the  colony. 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxi.  74 — 81.  from  the  old  Hutchinson  paper*, 
fivery  word,  unless  it  be  some  small  I  have  omitted  some  things,  but 
connecting  words,  is  taken  exactly  have  not  added  a  line. 


128 


CHAPTER    XIII. 


8HAFTESBURY  AND  LOCKE  LEGISLATE  FOR  CAROLINA. 

Cxm'  MEANTIME  civilization  had  advanced  at  the  south 
""" ""'  and  twin  stars  were  emerging  beyond  the  limits  of 
Virginia.  The  country  over  which  Soto  had  rambled 
in  quest  of  gold,  where  Calvinists,  befriended  by  Co 
ligny,  had  sought  a  refuge,  and  where  Raleigh  had 
hoped  to  lay  the  foundations  of  colonial  principalities, 
was  beginning  to  submit  to  the  culture  of  civilization. 
Massachusetts  and  Carolina  were  both  colonized 
under  proprietary  charters,  and  of  both  the  charters 
were  subverted  ;  but  while  the  proprietaries  of  the 
former  were  emigrants  themselves,  united  by  the  love 
of  religious  liberty,  the  proprietaries  of  the  latter  were 
a  company  of  English  courtiers,  combined  for  the  pur- 
pose of  a  vast  speculation  in  lands.  The  government 
established  in  Massachusetts  was  essentially  popular, 
and  was  the  growth  of  the  soil ;  the  constitution  of 
Carolina  was  invented  in  England.  Massachusetts 
was  originally  colonized  by  a  feeble  band  of  suffering 
yet  resolute  exiles,  and  its  institutions  were  the  natu- 
ral result  of  the  good  sense  and  instinct  for  liberty  of 
an  agricultural  people  ;  Carolina  was  settled  under 
the  auspices  of  the  wealthiest  and  most  influential 
nobility,  and  its  fundamental  laws  were  framed  with 
forethought  by  the  most  sagacious  politician  and  the 


PROPRIETARIES   OF   CAROLINA 

most  profound   philosopher  of  England.      The  king,  CHAP. 
through  an  obsequious  judiciary,  annulled  the  govern-  — v^L. 
ment  of  Massachusetts ;  the  colonists  repudiated  the 
constitutions   of    Carolina.      The    principles   of    the 
former  possessed  an  inherent  vitality,  which  nothing 
has  yet  been  able  to  destroy  ;  the  frame  of  the  latter, 
as  it  disappeared,  left  no  trace  of  its  transitory  exist- 
ence, except  in  the  institutions  which  sprung  from  its 
decay. 

The  reign  of  Charles  II.  was  not  less  remarkable 
for  the  rapacity  of  the  courtiers,  than  for  the  debauch- 
ery of  the  monarch.  The  southern  part  of  our  re- 
public, ever  regarded  as  capable  of  producing  all  the 
staples  that  thrive  on  the  borders  of  the  tropics,  was 
coveted  by  statesmen  who  controlled  the  whole 
patronage  of  the  British  realms.  The  province  of 
Carolina,  extending  from  the  thirty-sixth  degree  of  1663 
north  latitude  to  the  River  San  Matheo,  was  accordingly  34. * 
erected  into  one  territory  ;  and  the  historian  Clarendon, 
the  covetous  though  experienced  minister,  hated  by 
the  people,  faithful  only  to  the  king ; 1  Monk,  so 
conspicuous  in  the  restoration,  and  now  ennobled  as 
duke  of  Albemarle  ;  Lord  Craven,2  a  brave  Cavalier, 
an  old  soldier  of  the  German  discipline,  supposed  to  be 
husband  to  the  queen  of  Bohemia ;  Lord  Ashley 
Cooper,  afterwards  earl  of  Shaftesbury ;  Sir  John 
Colleton,  a  royalist  of  no  historical  notoriety ;  Lord 
John  Berkeley,  with  his  younger  brother,3  Sir  William 
Berkeley,  the  governor  of  Virginia ;  and  the  passionate, 
and  ignorant,  and  not  too  honest  Sir  George  Cartel  et,4 
—were  Constituted  its  proprietors  and  immediate  sove- 

1  Pepys,  i.  192,  366.     Evelyn.  3  Morryson,  in  Burk,  iii.  266. 

3  Life  of  Lord  Keeper  Guilford,        4  Pepys,  i.356, 140, 235, 236,228, 
393.  Pepys,  i.  115.  176. 

VOL.    II.  17 


130  PROPRIETARIES   OF   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  reigns.     Their  authority  was  nearly  absolute  ;  nothing 

~"v^'  was  reserved  but  a  barren  allegiance.  Avarice  is  the 
vice  of  declining  years  ;  most  of  the  proprietaries  were 
past  middle  life.  They  begged  the  country  under 
pretence  of  "  a  pious  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  the 
gospel ; "  and  their  sole  object  was  the  increase  of 
their  own  wealth  and  dignity.1 

The  grant  had  hardly  been  made  before  it  became 
apparent  that  there  were  competitors,  claiming  posses- 
sion of  the  same  territory.  It  was  included  by  the 
Spaniards  within  the  limits  of  Florida  ;  and  the  castle 
of  St.  Augustine  was  deemed  proof  of  the  actual  pos- 
session of  an  indefinite  adjacent  country.  Spain  had 
never  formally  acknowledged  the  English  title  to  any 

1667.  possessions   in    America;    and    when   a   treaty    was 

^f    finally  concluded  at  Madrid,  it  did  but  faintly  concede 

the  right  of  England  to  her  transatlantic  colonies,  and 

to  a  continuance  of  commerce    in    "  the    accustomed 

seas." 

And  not  Spain  only  claimed  Carolina.  In  1630,  a 
patent  for  all  the  territory  had  been  issued  to  Sir 
Robert  Heath  ;  and  there  is  room  to  believe  that,  in 
1639,  permanent  plantations  were  planned  and  perhaps 
attempted  by  his  assign.2  William  Hawley  appeared 
in  Virginia  as  "  governor  of  Carolina,"  the  land 
between  the  thirty-first  and  thirty-sixth  parallels  of 
latitude  ;  and  leave  was  granted  by  the  Virginia  legis- 
lature, that  it  might  be  colonized  by  one  hundred 
persons  from  Virginia,  "  freemen,  being  single,  and 
disjngaged  of  debt."3  The  attempts  were  certainly 

I6G3.  unsuccessful,  for  the  patent  was  now   declared  void. 

i  The  two  Charters  to  the  Pro-  Richmond,  labelled  No.  1,  163&— 

prietors  of  Carolina,  small  4to.  1642,  p.  70. 

a  Hcning,  i.  552.  Records  in  3  Richmond  Records,  No.  1. 163R 

the  office  of  the  general  court  at  — 1642,  p.  9& 


NEW  ENGLAND  MEN  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA.         131 

because  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  granted    had  CHAP 
never  been  fulfilled.1  v^^. 

More  stubborn  rivals  were  found  to  have  already2  1660 
planted  themselves  on  the  River  Cape  Fear.  Hardly 
had  New  England  received  within  its  bosom  a  few 
scanty  colonies,  before  her  citizens  and  her  sons  began 
roaming  the  continent  and  traversing  the  seas  in  quest 
of  untried  fortune.  A  little  bark,  navigated  by  New 
England  men,  had  hovered  off  the  coast  of  Carolina  ; 
they  had  carefully  watched  the  dangers  of  its  naviga- 
tion ;  had  found  their  way  into  the  Cape  Fear  River ; 
had  purchased  of  the  Indian  chiefs  a  title  to  the  soil,  and 
had  boldly  planted  a  little  colony  of  herdsmen  far  to 
the  south  of  any  English  settlement  on  the  continent. 
Already  they  had  partners  in  London,  and  hardly  was 
the  grant  of  Carolina  made  known,  before  their  agents  1663 
pleaded  their  discovery,  occupancy,  and  purchase,  as 
affording  a  valid  title  to  the  soil,  while  they  claimed 
the  privileges  of  self-government  as  a  natural  right.3 
A  compromise  was  offered  ;  and  the  proprietaries,  in 
their  "  proposals  to  all  that  would  plant  in  Carolina," 
promised  emigrants  from  New  England  religious  free- 
dom, a  governor  and  council  to  be  elected  from  among 
a  number  whom  the  emigrants  themselves  should 
nominate,  a  representative  assembly,  independent 
legislation,  subject  only  to  the  negative  of  the  proprie- 
taries, land  at  a  rent  of  a  halfpenny  an  acre,  and  such 
freedom  from  customs  as  the  charter  would  warrant.4 
Yet  the  lands  round  Cape  Fear  were  not  inviting 


1  Williamson's   N.  C.  L  84,  85.  i.  95,  1660.    Again,  Martin,  L  137, 
Berkeley,  ibid.  255.     Martin,  i.  94,  contradicts  himself,  and  says  1660. 
125.     Chalmers,  515.  3  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxi.  55—59. 

2  Lawson's    Description,  p.  73.  Martin,  i.  116,  117, 126.     Letter  in 
"In  the  year  1661,  or  thereabouts."  Williamson,  i.  256. 

Martin,  i.  126,  1659.    Williamson,  4  Chalmers,  518 


132        NEW  ENGLAND  MEN  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  to  men   who   could   choose  their  abodes  from  the 

XIII. 

— v—  whole  wilderness  ;  the  herds,  and  the  fields  in  which 
they  browsed,  were  for  a  season  abandoned  to  the 
care  of  friendly  Indians ; 1  and  the  emigrants,  revis- 
iting their  former  homes,  "  spread  a  reproach  on  the 
harbor  and  the  soil." 2  But  the  colony  was  not  at  once 
wholly  deserted ;  and  if  its  sufferings  became  extreme, 
Massachusetts,  the  young  mother  of  colonies,  not  in- 
different to  the  fate  of  her  children,  listened  to  their 
prayer  "  for  some  relief  in  their  distress,"  and  in  May, 

1667.  1667,  ministered  to  their  wants  by  a  general  contri- 
bution through  her  settlements.8  The  infant  town 
planted  on  Oldtown  Creek,  near  the  south  side  of 
Cape  Fear  River,  did  not  prosper,  the  Indians  took 
offence  at  the  New  England  planters,  and  though 
they  had  no  guns,  yet  they  never  gave  over,  till,  by 
their  bows  and  arrows,  they  had  entirely  lid  them- 
selves of  the  intruders.4  Other  causes  than  the  rov- 
ing restlessness  of  the  Independents  from  Massachu- 
setts produced  "  the  distractions  "  which  ensued  ; 
y  nature  herself,  especially  in  the  wilderness,  prompts 
and  encourages  the  love  of  freedom. 

The  conditions  offered  to  the  colony  of  Cape  Fear 
"were  not  intended  for  the  meridian"  of  Virginia. 
"  There,"  said  the  proprietaries,  in  their  instructions 
to  Sir  William  Berkeley,  "  we  hope  to  find  more  facile 
people  "  than  the  New  England  men.  Yet  they  in- 
trusted the  affair  entirely  to  Sir  William's  manage- 
ment. He  was  to  get  settlers  as  cheaply  as  possible ; 
yet  at  any  rate  to  get  settlers. 

1  Journal    of   Gentlemen    from        *  Massachusetts     Records     for 

Barbadoes,  in  Lawson,  72,  73.  May,  1667,  vol.  iv.  part  ii.  p.  337. 

*  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxi.  58.  4  Lawson,   74.      F.   L.   Hawk's 

MS.  History  of  North  Carolina. 


EARLY   EXPLORING   PARTIES   FROM   VIRGINIA.  133 

Like  Massachusetts,  Virginia  was  the  mother  of  a  CHAP. 

XIII 

cluster  of  states  ;  like  the  towns  of  New  England,  the  ~ 

plantations  of  Virginia  extended  along  the  sea.  The 
country  on  Nansemund  River  had  been  settled  as  early 
as  1609  ;  in  1622,  the  adventurous  Porey,  then  secre-  1p2,2' 
tary  of  the  Old  Dominion,  travelled  over  land  to  the. 
South  River,  Chowan,  and,  on  his  leturn,  celebrated  the 
kindness  of  the  native  people,  the  fertility  of  the 
country,  and  the  happy  climate,  that  yielded  two  har- 
vests in  each  year.1  If  no  immediate  colonization 
ensued,  if  the  plans  formed  in  England  by  Sir  Robert 
Heath,  or  by  Lord  Maltravers,  Heath's  assign,  were 
never  realized,  the  desire  of  extending  the  settle- 
ments to  the  south  still  prevailed  in  Virginia  ;  and 
twenty  years  after  the  excursion  of  Porey,  a  company  V642 
that  had  heard  of  the  river  that  lay  south-west  of  the 
Appomattox,  petitioned,  and  soon  obtained  leave  of  the  1643 
Virginia  legislature  to  prosecute  the  discovery,  under  the 
promise  of  a  fourteen  years'  monopoly  of  the  profits.2 
Exploring  parties  to  the  south  not  less  than  to  the 
west,  to  Southern  Virginia,  or  Carolina,3  the  early 
name,  which  had  been  retained  in  the  days  of  Charles 
I.  and  of  Cromwell,  and  which  was  renewed  under 
Charles  II.,4  continued  to  be  encouraged  by  similar 
giants.  Clayborne,5  the  early  trader  in  Maryland,  1652 
still  cherished  a  fondness  for  discovery  ;  and  the  sons  of 
Governor  Yeardley 6  wrote  to  England  with  exultation, 
that  the  northern  country  of  Carolina  had  been 
explored  by  "  Virginians  born." 

1  Smith's  Virginia,  ii.  64.  3  Thurloe,  il  273, 274.     Hening, 

2  Hening,  i.  262.     Williamson,  i.     i.  552. 

91.  "  For  more  than  twenty  years,"        4  Compare   Carolina,  by  T.    A 

&c.  Had  Williamson  for  his  opinion  1682,  p.  3. 

other  grounds  than  this  act,  which,        5  Hening,  i.  377. 

however,  does  not  sustain  his  state-        6  Thurloe,  ii.  273,  274.    Letter  of 

inent  ?     He  cites  no  authority.  Francis  Yeardley  to  John  Farrar. 


134  A   COLONY    FROM   VIRGINIA   IN   NORTH   CAROLINA 

CHAP.      We  are  not  left  to  conjecture,  who  of  the  inhabit 

XIII. 

^v^-  ants  of  Nansemund  of  that  day  first  traversed  the 
intervening  forests  and  came  upon  the  rivers  that  flow 
into  Albemarle  Sound.  The  company  was  led  by 

1653.  Roger  Green,  and  his  services  were  rewarded  by  the 

T    1 

uy'  grant  of  a  thousand  acres,  while  ten  thousand  acres 
were  offered  to  any  hundred  persons  who  would  plant 
on  the  banks  of  the  Koanoke,  or  on  the  south  side  of 
the  Chowan  and  its  tributary  streams.1  These  condi 
tional  grants  seem  not  to  have  taken  effect ;  yet  the 
1656.  enterprise  of  Virginia  did  not  flag;  and  Thomas  Dew, 
once  the  speaker  of  the  assembly,  formed  a  plan  foi 
exploring  the  navigable  rivers  still  further  to  the  south, 
between  Cape  Hatteras  and  Cape  Fear.2  How  fai 
this  spirit  of  discovery  led  to  immediate  emigration,  it 
is  not  possible  to  determine.  The  county  of  Nanse 
mund  had  long  abounded  in  non-conformists  ; 3  and  it 
is  certain  the  first  settlements  on  Albemarle  Sound 
were  a  result  of  spontaneous  overflowings  from 
Virginia.  Perhaps  a  few  vagrant  families  were 
planted  within  the  limits  of  Carolina4  before  the 
restoration.  At  that  period,  men  who  were  impatient 
of  interference,  who  dreaded  the  enforcement  of  reli- 
gious conformity,  who  distrusted  the  spirit  of  the  new 
government  in  Virginia,  plunged  more  deeply  into  the 
forests.  It  is  known  that,  in  1662,  the  chief  of  the 
Yeopim  Indians  granted  to  George  Durant 5  the  neck 

1  Hening,  i.  380,  381.  remain.    I  have  no  document  older 

2  Ibid.  422.  than   1663,  and   no   exact  account, 

3  Winthrop,  ii.  334.     Johnson's  which  I  dare  trust,  older  than  10(52. 
Wonderw.  Prov.  B.  iii.  c.  xi.  5  Winthrop,  ii.  334,  speaks  of  Mr. 

4  Williamson,  i.  79,  91,  and  note  Durand,  of  Nansemund,  elder  of  a 
on   93.     Williamson   cites   no   au-  Puritan  "very  orthodox  church,"  in 
thorities.     The  accounts  in  the  his-  that  county,  and  banished  from  Vir- 
torians  of  North  Carolina  are  con-  giniain  1048,  by  Sir  William  Berke- 
lused.     As  far  as  I  can  learn,  no  ley.     Were  the   exile  and  the  col, 
memorials   of  the  earliest  settlers  onist  in  any  way  connected  ? 


A    COLONY  FROM   VIRGINIA   IN  N  3RTH   CAROLINA. 

of    land   which   still    bears   his  name  ;  1    and,  in  the  CHAP 

XIII  * 

following  year,  George  Cathmaid  could  claim  from  Sir  ^v^~ 


William  Berkeley  a  large  grant  of  land  upon  the 
Sound,  as  a  reward  for  having  established  sixty-seven  i. 
persons  in  Carolina.2  This  may  have  been  the  oldest 
considerable  settlement  ;  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
volunteer  emigrants  had  preceded  them.3  In  Septem- 
ber, the  colony  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
proprietaries,  and  Berkeley  was  commissioned  to  insti- 
tute a  government  over  the  region,  which,  in  honor  of 
Monk,  received  the  name  that  time  has  transferred  to 
the  bay.  The  plantations  were  chiefly  on  the  north- 
east bank  of  -  the  Chowan  ;  and,  as  the  mouth  of 
that  river  is  north  of  the  thirty-sixth  parallel  of  lati- 
tude, they  were  not  included  in  the  first  patent  of 
Carolina.  Yet  Berkeley,  who  was  but  governor  of 
Virginia,  and  was  a  joint  proprietary  of  Carolina,  obeyed 
his  interest  as  landholder  more  than  his%  duty  as  gov- 
ernor ;  and,  severing  the  settlement  from  the  Ancient 
Dominion,  established  a  separate  government  over 
men  who  had  fled  into  the  woods  for  the  enjoyment 
of  independence,  and  who  had  already,  at  least  in 
part,  obtained  a  grant  of  their  lands  from  the  aboriginal 
lords  of  the  soil. 

Berkeley  did  not  venture  to  discuss  the  political  prin- 
ciples or  dispute  the  possessions  of  these  bold  pioneers. 
He  appointed  William4  Drummond,  an  emigrant  to 


1  MSS.  communicated  by  D.  L.  settles  the  question.  Williamson, 

8 -vain,  governor  of  North  Carolina,  i.  119,  is  even  more  inaccurate  than 

in  1835.  Martin  ;  he  says  Drummond  died  in 

"  MSS.  from  D.  L.  Swain.  the  colony.     So  carelessly  has  the 

3  Chalmers,    519,     "  For     some  history  of  N.  C.  been  written,  that 
years."  the  name,  the  merits,  and  the  end 

4  William.     Martin,   i.  138,  says  of     its     first     governor  were   not 
George  Drummond.       Hening,    ii.  known. 

226,  Act  i.  identifies  the  man,  and 


136  GOVERNMENT  INSTITUTED   IN    NORTH   CAROLINA 

CHAP.  Virginia1  from  Scotland,2  probably  a  Presbyterian,  a 

JVlll. 

-^~  man  of  prudence  and  popularity,  deeply  imbued  with 
the  passion  for  popular  liberty,3  to  be  the  governor  of 
Northern  Carolina ;  and,  instituting  a  simple  form  of 
government,a  Carolina  assembly,4  and  an  easy  tenure  of 
lands,  he  left  the  infant  people  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves ;  to  enjoy  liberty  of  conscience  and  of  conduct  in 
the  entire  freedom  of  innocent  retirement ;  to  forget  the 
6.  world,  till  rent-day  drew  near,  and  quit-rents  might  be 
demanded.5  Such  was  the  origin  of  fixed  settlements 
in  North  Carolina.  The  child  of  ecclesiastical  op- 
pression was  swathed  in  independence. 

But  not  New  England    and  Virginia   only  turned 
their  eyes  to  the  southern  part  of  our  republic.     Sev- 
eral planters  of  Barbadoes,  dissatisfied  with  their  con- 
1663.  dition,  and  desiring  to  establish  a  colony  under  their 
Sept   own     exclusive     direction,    despatched    a    vessel    to 

29 

to      examine   the  country.     What  other  report  could   be 

D£c*   made   by  the  careful  leaders  of  the  expedition,  than 

that  the  climate  was  agreeable,  and  the  soil  of  various 

qualities ;  that  game  abounded  ;   that  the  natives  were 

ready  to  promise  peace  ? 6     They    purchased  of   the 

Indians  a  tract  of  land   thirty-two  miles  square,  on 

Cape  Fear  River,  near  the  neglected  settlement  of  the 

•665.  New  Englanders,  and  their  employers  begged  of  the 

proprietaries  a  confirmation    of  the  purchase,  and  a 

separate  charter  of  government.     Not  all  their  request 

1  Hening,  i.  549,  ii.  158.  *  Richmond  Records,  No.  3.  1663 

2  Sir  Wm.  Berkeley's  List,  &c.,  —1068,  348—353.     «  Win.  Di  urn- 
copied  by  Greenhow,  published  by  mond,  governor  of   Carolina,   and 
P.   Force,  1835.      "Drummond,  a  the  assembly  there."  p.  349.     This 
Scotchman."  was  July  12,  1666. 

3  Berkeley,    as    above.     And    a  5  Chalmers,  520. 

Narrative  of  the  Indian  and  Civil  6  The   account  is    reprinted   in 

Wars  in  Virginia,  in   Mass.  Hist  Lawson,  65 — 73.   Martin,  180,  &c , 

Coll.  xi.  79'     in    Force's   edition,  less  perfectly, 
p.  4(i 


COLONY   FROM   BARBADOES 

was  granted  ,-  yet  liberal  terms  were  proposed  ;  and  CHAP 
Sir  John  Yeamans,  the  son  of  a  Cavalier,  a  needy  ~^ — 
baronet,  who,  to  mend  his  fortune,  had  become  a  1663 
Barbadoes  planter,  was  appointed  governor,  with  a 
jurisdiction  extending  from  Cape  Fear  to  the  St 
Matheo.  The  country  was  called  Clarendon.  "  Make 
things  easy  to  the  people  of  New  England ,  from 
thenco  the  greatest  supplies  are  expected ; "  such 
were  his  instructions.  Under  an  ample  grant  of 
liberties  for  the  colony,  he  conducted,  in  the  autumn 
of  1665, 'a  band  of  emigrants  from  Barbadoes,  and  on 
the  south  bank  of  Cape  Fear  River  laid  the  foundation 
of  a  town,  which  flourished  so  little,  that  its  site  is  at 
this  day  a  subject  of  dispute.1  Yet  the  colony,  barren 
as  were  the  plains  around  them,  made  some  advances  ; 
it  exported  boards,  and  shingles,  and  staves,  to  Bar- 
badoes. The  little  traffic  was  profitable,  and  was 
continued ;  emigration  increased ;  the  influence  of 
the  proprietaries  fostered  its  growth  ;  and  it  has  been 
said  that,  in  1666,  the  plantation  already  contained 
eight  hundred  souls.  Many  preferred  it,  as  a  place  of 
residence,  to  Barbadoes,  and  Yeamans,  who  under- 
stood the  nature  of  colonial  trade,  managed  its  affairs 
without  reproach.2 . 

Meantime  the  proprietaries,  having  collected  mi- 
nute information  respecting  the  coast,  had  learned 
to  covet  an  extension  of  their  domains  ;  and,  indif- 
ferent to  the  claims  of  Virginia,  and  in  open  con- 
tempt of  the  garrison  of  Spain  at  St.  Augustine, 
the  covetous  Clarendon  and  his  associates  easily  1665 

.   ,  j    June 

obtained  from  the  king  a  new  charter,  which  granted     ia 
to  them,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  all 

i  See  Lawson's  Map.    Martin,  i.  142,  143.          9  WDliamson,  i.  100. 
VOL    II.  18 


138  SECOND   CHARTER  FOR  CAROLINA. 

SHAP.  the  land  lying  between  twenty-nine  degrees  and 
— *^~  thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  north  latitude ; 
1665.  a  territory  extending  seven  and  a  half  degrees  from 
north  to  south,  and  more  than  forty  degrees  from  east 
to  west;  comprising  all  the  territory  of  North  and 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mis- 
sissippi, Louisiana,  Arkansas,  much  of  Florida  and 
Missouri,  nearly  all  of  Texas,  and  a  large  portion  of 
Mexico.  The  soil,  and,  under  the  limitation  of  a 
nominal  allegiance,  the  sovereignty  also,  were  theirs, 
with  the  power  of  legislation,  subject  to  the  consent 
of  the  future  freemen  of  the  colony.  The  grant  of 
privileges  was  ample,  like  those  to  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut.  An  express  clause  in  the  charter  for 
Carolina  opened  the  way  for  religious  freedom ; 
another  held  out  to  the  proprietaries  a  hope  of  revenue 
from  colonial  customs,  to  be  imposed  in  colonial  ports 
by  Carolina  legislatures;  another  gave  them  the 
power  of  erecting  cities  and  manors,  counties  and 
baronies,  and  of  establishing  orders  of  nobility,  with 
other  than  English  titles.  It  was  evident  that  the 
founding  of  an  empire  was  contemplated ;  for  the 
power  to  levy  troops,  to  erect  fortifications,  to  make 
war  by  sea  and  land  on  their  enemies,  and  to  exercise 
martial  law  in  cases  of  necessity,  was  not  withheld. 
Every  favor  was  extended  to  the  proprietaries  ;  nothing 
was  neglected  but  the  interests  of  the  English  sove 
reign  and  the  rights  of  the  colonists.1 

Thus  the  most  ample  privileges  and  territories  were 

conferred  on  the  corporation  of  eight ;  had   the  lands 

been  divided,  each  would  have  received  a  vast  realm 

for   his   portion.      Yet,  when   William  Sayle,  of  the 

1648   Summer   Islands,  who,  long  before,  had  attempted  to 

1  Carolina  Charters,  4to.  Reprinted  often      Williamson,  L  230. 


FORMATION  OF  CONSTITUTIONS  FOR   CAROLINA.  13& 

plant  a  colony  of  Puritans  from  Virginia  in  the  Baha-  CHAP 
ma  Isles,1  returned  from  a  later  voyage  of  discovery,  -—v^L 
which  had  embraced  the  isles  in  the  Gulf  of  Florida,2  1667 
of  these   too,  the  "  Eleutheria  "  of  a  former  day,  then 
almost  a  desert,  comprising  the  land  in  America  on 
which  Columbus  first  kneeled,  and  including  all   the 
islands  within  a  belt  of  five  degrees,  possession  was 
solicited  and  obtained. 

With  the  new  charters  the  designs  of  the  company  1668 
expanded.  The  germs  of  colonies  already  existed ; 
imagination  encouraged  in  futurity  every  extravagant 
anticipation.  It  was  deemed  proper  to  establish  a 
form  of  government  commensurate  in  its  dignity  with 
the  auspices  of  the  colony  and  the  vastness  of  the 
country  ;  Clarendon  was  no  longer  in  England ;  and 
Ashley  Cooper,  earl  of  Shaftesbury,  the  most  active 
and  the  most  able  of  the  corporators,  was  deputed  to 
frame  for  the  dawning  states  a  perfect  constitution, 
worthy  to  endure  throughout  all  ages. 

Shaftesbury  was  at  this  time  in  the  full  maturity 
of  his  genius ;  celebrated  for  eloquence,  philosophic 
genius,  and  sagacity ;  high  in  power,  and  of  aspiring 
ambition.  Born  to  great  hereditary  wealth,  the  pupil 
of  Prideaux  had  given  his  early  years  to  the  assiduous 
pursuit  of  knowledge  ;  the  intellectual  part  of  his 
nature  had  from  boyhood  obtained  the  mastery  over 
the  love  ot  indulgence  and  luxury.  Connected  with 
the  great  landed  aristocracy  of  England,  cradled  in 
politics,  and  chosen  a  member  of  parliament  at  the 
age  of  nineteen,  his  long  public  career  was  checkered 
by  the  greatest  varieties  of  success.  It  is  a  very 
common  error  of  the  incurious  observer,  to  attribute 
frequent  change  to  statesmen  who  have  held  the  helm 

i  Winthrop,  ii.  334,  335.  2  Hewat's  S.  Carolina,  i.  48. 


140          ASHLEY  COOPER,  EARL  OF  SHAFTESBURY. 

CHAP  in  seasons  of  vicissitudes  ;  and  Shaftesbury,  whose 
^v"*  political  career  merits  severe  reprobation,  has  been 
charged  with  repeated  derelictions.  But  men  of  great 
mental  power,  though  they  may  often  change  the 
instruments  which  they  employ,  change  their  principles 
and  their  purposes  rarely.  The  party  connections  of 
Shaftesbury  were  affected  by  the  revolutions  of  the 
times  ;  but  he  has  been  falsely  charged  with  political 
inconsistency.  He  often  changed  his  associates,  never 
his  purposes ; !  alike  the  enemy  to  absolute  monarchy 
and  to  democratic  influence,  he  resolutely  connected 
his  own  aggrandizement  with  the  privileges  and 
interests  of  British  commerce,  of  Protestant  religious 
liberty,  and  of  the  landed  aristocracy  of  England.  In 
the  Long  Parliament,  Shaftesbury  acted  with  the 
people  against  absolute  power;  but,  while  Vane 
adhered  to  the  parliament  from  love  of  popular  rights, 
Shaftesbury  adhered  to  it  as  the  guardian  of  aristo- 
cratic liberty.  Again,  under  Cromwell,  Shaftesbury 
was  still  the  opponent  of  arbitrary  power.  At  the 
restoration,  he  would  not  tolerate  an  agreement  with 
the  king ;  such  agreement,  at  that  time,  could  not  but 
have  been  democratic,  and  adverse  to  the  privileges  of 
the  nobility ;  which,  therefore,  in  the  plenitude  of  the 
royal  power,  sought  an  ally  against  the  people.  When 
Charles  II.  showed  a  disposition  to  become,  like  Louis 
XIV.,  superior  to  the  gentry  as  well  as  to  the  de- 
mocracy, Shaftesbury  immediately  joined  the  party 
opposed  to  the  ultra  royalists,  not  as  changing  his 
principles,2  but  from  hostility  to  the  supporters  of  pre- 
rogative. The  party  which  he  represented,  the  great 

1  Constantia,  fide,  vix  parem  alibi  a    Pepys,   i.  219.    But   Dryden 

invenias,  superiorein  certe  nullibi.  writes,  "  Restless,  unfixed  in  prin- 

Locke's   Epitaph  on    Shaflesbury.  ciples  and  place."  This  is  true  of  hia 

Locke,  ix.  281.  party  connections,  not  hia  principles. 


ASHLEY  COOPER,  EARL  OF  SHAFTESblTRY          141 

aristocracy  of  wealth,   had   to  sustain  itself  between  CHAF 

XIII 

the  people  on  one  side,  and  the  monarch  on  the  other.  ^v~ 
The  "  nobility "  was,  in  his  view,  the  "  rock "  of 
"  English  principles  ;  " 1  the  power  of  the  peerage,  and 
of  arbitrary  monarchy,  were  "  as  two  buckets,  of  which 
one  goes  down  exactly  as  the  other  goes  up." 2  In  the 
people  of  England,  as  the  depository  of  power  and 
freedom,  Shaftesbury  had  no  confidence  ;  his  system 
protected  wealth  and  privilege  ;  and  he  desired  to 
deposit  the  conservative  principles  of  society  in  the 
exclusive  custody  of  the  favored  classes.  Cromwell 
had  proposed,  and  Vane  had  advocated,  a  reform  in 
parliament ;  Shaftesbury  hardly  showed  a  disposition 
to  diminish  the  influence  of  the  nobility  over  the  lower 
house.3 

Such  were  the  political  principles  of  Shaftesbury ; 
and  his  personal  character  was  analogous.  He  loved 
wealth  without  being  a  slave  to  avarice ;  and,  though 
he  would  have  made  no  scruple  of  "  robbing  the  devil 
or  the  altar," 4  he  would  not  pervert  the  course  of 
judgment,  or  be  bribed  into  the  abandonment  of  his 
convictions.5  If,  as  lord  chancellor,  he  sometimes 
received  a  present,  his  judgment  was  never  suspected 
of  a  bias.  Quick  to  discern  the  right,  and  careless  of 
precedents,  usages,  and  bar-rules,  he  was  prompt  to 
render  an  equitable  decision.  Every  body  applauded 
but  the  lawyers ;  they  censured  the  contempt  of 
ancient  forms ;  the  diminished  weight  of  authority, 
and  the  neglect  of  legal  erudition  ;  the  historians,  the 

1  "  A  Letter  from  a  Person  of  devil  he  is  described."  C.  J.  Fox 

Quality  to  his  Friend  in  the  Coun-  See  introduction  to  Fox's  History 

try,"  in  Locke,  x.  226,  242.  of  James  II.  p.  50. 

a  Pepys,  i.  219.  4  Pepys,  i.  366. 

3  "  As  to  making  Shaftesbury  a  5  Evelyn,  ii.  361,  asserts  positively 
tnend  to  our  ideas  of  liberty,  it  is  that  Shaftesbury  did  not  advise  the 
impossible,  at  least  in  my  opinion,  king  to  invade  the  exchequer.  Lin- 
Yet  ne  is  very  far  from  being  the  gard  is  severe  in  his  judgment. 


142         ASHLEY  COOPER,  EARL  OF  SHAFTESBURY 

CHAP   poets,  common  fame,  even  his  enemies,  declared   that 

A.  Ill* 

— v~  never  had  a  judge  possessed  more  discerning  eves,  or 
cleaner  hands ; 

u  Unbribed,  unbought,  the  wretched  to  redress, 
Swift  of  despatch,  and  easy  of  access." 

In  changing  friendships,  he  never  betrayed  the  confi- 
dence of  former  friends  ;  and  the  changes  were  a 
consequence  of  his  principles,  not  of  his  ambition 
Even  his  enemies  allowed,  that,  as  a  royalist  minister, 
he  might  have  "  freely  gathered  the  golden  fruit ;  " 
but  he  disdained  the  monarch's  favor,  and  stood  firmly 
by  the  vested  rights  of  his  order. 

In  person,  he  was  small,  and  of  that  peculiar  organi- 
zation which  is  alike  irritable  and  versatile.  It  belongs 
to  such  a  man  to  have  cunning  rather  than  wisdom  ; 
celerity  rather  than  dignity ;  the  very  high  powers  of 
abstraction  and  generalization  rather  than  the  still 
higher  power  of  successful  action.  He  transacted 
business  with  an  admirable  ease  and  mastery,1  for  his 
lucid  understanding  delighted  in  general  principles  ; 
but  he  could  not  successfully  control  men,  for  he  had 
neither  conduct  in  the  direction  of  a  party,  nor  integrity 
in  the  choice  of  means.  He  would  use  a  prejudice  as 
soon  as  an  argument ;  would  stimulate  a  superstition 
as  soon  as  wake  truth  to  the  battle ;  would  flatter  a 
crowd  or  court  a  king.  Having  debauched  his  mind 
into  a  contempt  for  the  people,  he  attempted  to  guide 
them  by  inflaming  their  passions. 

This  contempt  for  humanity  punishes  itself ;  Shaftes- 
bury  was  destitute  of  the  healthy  judgment  which 
comes  from  sympathy  with  his  fellow-men.  Alive  to 
the  force  of  an  argument,  he  never  could  judge  of  its 

1  Pepys,  i.  222 ;  or  Shaftesbury.    Compare,  also,  North  and  Burnel 


ASHLEY  COOPER,  EARL  OF  SHAFTESBURY.          143 

effect  on  other  minds  :  his  subtle  wit,  prompt  to  seize  CHAP 
on  the  motives  to  conduct,  and  the  natural  affinities  of 
parties,  could  not  discern  the  moral  obstacles  to  new 
combinations.  He  had  no  natural  sense  of  propriety ; 
he  despised  gravity,  as,  what  indeed  it  often  is,  the 
affectation  of  dulness ;  and  thought  it  no  condescen- 
sion to  charm  by  drollery.  Himself  without  any 
veneration  for  prejudice  or  prescriptive  usage,  he  never 
could  estimate  the  difficulty  of  abrogating  a  form  or 
overcoming  a  prejudice.  His  mind  regarded  purposes 
and  results ;  and  he  did  not  so  much  defy  appearances 
as  rest  ignorant  of  their  power ;  an  indifference, 
which,  in  some  respects,  was  an  immorality.  Desiring 
to  exclude  the  duke  of  York  from  the  throne,  no 
delicacy  of  sentiment  restrained  him  from  proposing 
.the  succession  to  the  uncertain  issue  of  an  abandoned 
woman,  who  had  once  been  mistress  to  the  king  ;  and 
he  saw  no  cruelty  in  urging  Charles  II.  to  a  divorce 
from  a  confiding  wife,  who  had  no  blemish  but  bar- 
renness. 

The  same  want  of  common  feeling,  joined  to  a 
surprising  mobility,  left  Shaftesbury  in  ignorance  of 
the  energy  of  religious  convictions.  Skeptics  are  apt 
to  be  superstitious  ;  the  organization  that  favors  the 
moral  restlessness  of  perpetual  doubt  often  superin- 
duces a  nervous  timidity.  Shaftesbury  was  indifferent 
to  religion ;  his  physical  irritability  made  him  not 
indifferent  to  superstition.  He  would  not  fear  God, 
but  he  watched  the  stars ;  he  did  not  receive  Chris- 
tianity, and  he  could  not  reject  astrology. 

Excellent  in  counsel,  Shaftesbury  was  poor  as  an 
executive  agent.  His  restless  spirit  fretted  at  delay, 
and  grew  feverish  with  impatient  waiting.  His  eager 
impetuosity  betrayed  the  designs  of  the  poor  dissimu- 


144         JOHN  LOCKE.  LANDGRAVE  IN  CAROLINA 

CHAP,  lator ;  and  wnen  unoccupied,  his  vexed  and  anxious 
->~v^-'  mind  lost  its  balance,  and  planned  desperate  counsels. 
In  times  of  tranquillity,  the  crafty  intriguer  was  too 
passionate  for  success ;  but  when  the  storm  was  really 
come,  and  old  landmarks  were  washed  away,  and  the 
wonted  lights  in  the  heavens  were  darkened,  Shaftes- 
bury  was  a  daring  and  successful  statesman ;  for  he 
knew  how  to  evolve  a  rule  of  conduct  from  general 
principles. 

66P  At  a  time  when  John  Locke  was  unknown  to  the 
world,  the  sagacity  of  Shaftesbury  had  detected  the 
deep  riches  of  his  mind,  and  selected  him  for  a  bosom 
friend  and  adviser  in  the  work  of  legislation  for  Caro- 
lina. Locke  was  at  this  time  in  the  midway  of  life, 
adorning  the  clearest  understanding  with  the  graces  of 
gentleness,  good  humor,  and  beautiful  ingenuousness.. 
Of  a  sunny  disposition,  he  could  be  choleric  without 
malice,  and  gay  without  levity.  Like  the  younger 
Winthrop,  he  was  a  most  dutiful  son.  In  dialectics, 
he  was  unparalleled,  except  by  his  patron.  His  lucid 
mind  despised  the  speculations  of  a  twilight  philos- 
ophy, esteeming  the  pursuit  of  truth  the  first  object 
of  life,  and  its  attainment  as  the  criterion  of  dignity  ; 
and  therefore  he  never  sacrificed  a  conviction  to  an 
interest.  The  ill  success  of  the  democratic  revolution 
of  England  had  made  him  an  enemy  to  popular  inno- 
vations. He  had  seen  the  commons  of  England  inca. 
pable  of  retaining  the  precious  conquest  they  ,  had 
made ;  and  being  neither  a  theorist  like  Milton,  nor  a 
tory  like  Tillotson,  he  cherished  what  at  that  day 
were  called  English  principles  ;  looking  to  the  aris- 
tocracy as  the  surest  adversaries  of  arbitrary  power. 
He  did  not,  like  Sidney,  sigh  for  the  good  old  cause  of 
a  republic  ;  nor,  like  Penn,  confide  in  the  instincts  of 


JOHN   LOCK*.. 

humanity  ;  but  regarded  the  privileges  of  the  nobility  CHAP 
as  the  guaranties  of  English  liberties.     Emphatically  — ~ 
free  from  avarice,  he  could  yet,  as  a  political  writer,  1669 
deify  liberty  under  the  form  of  wealth ;  to  him  slavery 
seemed  no  unrighteous  institution  ;    and  he  defines  x 
'*  political  power  to  be   the  right  of  making  laws  for 
icgulating  and   preserving  property."      Destitute    of 
enthusiasm  of  soul,  he  had  no  kindling  love  for  ideal 
excellence.     He  abhorred  the  designs,  and  disbelieved 
the   promises,  of  democracy ;    he  could   sneer  at  the 
enthusiasm  of  Friends.     Unlike  Penn,  he  believed  it 
possible  to  construct  the  future  according  to  the  forms 
of  the  past.     No  voice  of  God  within  his  soul  called 
him    away  from  the  established  usages  of  England  ; 
and,  as  he  went  forth  to  lay  the  foundations  of  civil 
government  in   the  wilderness,  he  bowed  his  mighty 
understanding  to  the  persuasive  influence  of  Shaftes 
bury.2 

But   the   formation  of    political  institutions  in   the 
United   States  was  not  effected   by  giant   minds,  or 
"  nobles  after  the   flesh."      American  history  knows 
but  one  avenue  to  success  in  American  legislation —  ^ 
freedom   from    ancient    prejudice.       The    truly   great  < 
lawgivers  in  our  colonies  first  became  as  little  children.3 

In  framing  constitutions  for  Carolina,  Locke  for- 
got the  fundamental  principles  of  practical  philos- 
ophy. There  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  creation  of 
laws ;  for  laws  are  but  the  arrangement  of  men  in 
society,  and  good  laws  are  but  the  arrangement  of  men 
in  society  in  their  just  and  natural  relations.  It  is  the 
prerogative  of  self-government,  that  it  adapts  itself  to 

1  Locke,  of  Civil  Gov.  b.  ii.  c.  i.     Intellectus  ab  idolis  liberandus  eat, 

2  Dedication  to  the  Posthumous    ut  non  alius  sit  aditus  ad  regnum, 
Pieces  of  Mr.  John  Locke.  in  scientiis,  quam  ad  regnum  ccelo- 

3    Bacon,   Nov.   Org.     i.  Ixviii.    rum ;  in  quod  nisi  sub  persona,  &c. 

VOL.  II.  '9 


146  CONSTITUTIONS   FOR   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  every  circumstance  which  can  arise.  Its  institutions, 
— - v-^  if  often  defective,  are  always  appropriate  ;  for  they 
1669.  are  tne  exact  representation  of  the  condition  of  a 
people,  and  can  be  evil  only  because  there  are  evils  in 
society ;  exactly  as  a  coat  may  suit  an  ill-shaped 
person.  Habits  of  thought  and  action  fix  their  stamp 
on  the  public  code  ;  the  faith,  the  prejudices,  the  hopes 
of  a  people,  may  be  read  there ;  and,  as  knowledge 
advances,  one  prejudice  after  another,  each  erroneous 
judgment,  each  perverse  enactment,  yields  to  the 
imbodied  force  of  the  common  will.  The  method  to 
success  in  legislating  for  Carolina,  could  only  have 
been  the  counsels  of  the  emigrants  themselves. 

The  constitutions  for  Carolina  merit  attention  as  the 
only  continued1  attempt  within  the  United  States 
to  connect  political  power  with  hereditary  wealth. 
America  was  singularly  rich  in  every  form  of  repre- 
sentative government;  its  political  experience  was  so 
varied,  that,  in  modern  European  constitutions,  hardly 
a  method  of  constituting  an  upper  or  a  popular  house 
has  thus  far  been  suggested,  of  which  the  character 
and  the  operation  had  not  already  been  tested  in  the 
history  of  our  fathers.  No  one  of  the  early  colonies  pos- 
sessed a  larger  experience  than  Carolina  ;  the  disputes 
of  a  thousand  years  were  crowded  into  a  generation. 

But  few  of  the  enfranchising  principles  which  were 
then  rapidly  gaining  a  distinct  existence,  received  at 
that  time  a  just  or  a  perverse  application.  Europe 
suffered  from  obsolete,  but  not  inoperative,  laws ;  no 
statute  of  Carolina  was  to  bind  beyond  a  century. 
Europe  suffered  from  the  multiplication  of  law-books, 
and  the  perplexities  of  the  law  ;  in  Carolina,  not  a  com- 

1  So,  in  1698,  April  11,  a  new  most  naturally  founded  in  property" 

form  of  the  fundamental  constitu-  The  two  Charters,   &c.  p.  54,— a 

tions  was  agreed  on  ;  and  article  7  small  4to.,  printed  without  date, 
asserts,  "  All  power  and  dominion  is 


CONSTITUTIONS   FOR   CAROLINA.  117 

rnentary   might  be   written  on   the  constitutions,  the  CHAP 

XIII 

statutes,  or  the  common  law.  Europe  suffered  from  —^ 
the  furies  of  English  bigotry;  Carolina  promised,  not 
equal  rights,  but  toleration  to  "Jews,  Heathens,  and 
other  Dissenters,"  to  "  men  of  any  religion."  In 
other  respects,  "  the  interests  of  the  proprietors,"  the 
desire  of  "  a  government  most  agreeable  to  monarchy," 
and  the  dread  of  "  a  numerous  democracy," 1  are 
avowed  as  the  sole  motives  for  forming  the  funda- 
mental constitutions  of  Carolina.  The  rights  of  the 
resident  emigrants  were  less  considered. 

The  proprietaries,  as  sovereigns,  constituted  a  close 
corporation  of  eight — a  number  which  was  never  to  be 
diminished  or  increased.  The  dignity  was  hereditary; 
in  default  of  heirs,  the  survivors  elected  a  successor 
Thus  was  formed  an  upper  house,  "  a  diet  of  Sta- 
rosts,"2  self-elected  and  immortal. 

For  purposes  of  settlement,  the  almost  boundless 
territory  was  to  be  divided  into  counties,  each  contain- 
ing four  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  acres.  The 
creation  of  two  orders  of  nobility,  of  one  landgrave 
or  earl,  of  two  caciques  or  barons  for  each  county,  pre- 
ceded the  distribution  of  lands  into  five  equal  parts, 
of  which  one  remained  the  inalienable  property  of  the 
proprietaries,  and  another  formed  the  inalienable  and 
indivisible  estates  of  the  nobility.  The  remaining 
three  fifths  were  reserved  for  what  was  called  the 
people ;  and  might  be  held  by  lords  of  manors  who 
were  not  hereditary  legislators,  but,  like  the  nobility, 
exercised  judicial  powers  in  their  baronial  courts. 
The  number  of  the  nobility  might  neither  be  increas- 
ed nor  diminished  ;  election  supplied  the  places  left 

i  See  the  Preamble  in  Charters,        2  Gillies'  Arist  ii.  248. 
&c.  p.  33  ;  in  Martin,  i.  App.  bcxi. 


148  CONSTITUTIONS  FOR  CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  vacant  for  want  of  heirs  ;  for,  by  an  agrarian  principle. 

- — -  estates  and  dignities  were  not  allowed  to  accumulate. 

1 609  The  instinct  of  aristocracy  dreads  the  moral 
power  of  a  proprietary  yeomanry;  the  perpetual 
degradation  of  the  cultivators  of  the  soil  was  enacted. 
The  leet-men,  or  tenants,  holding  ten  acres  of  land  at 
a  fixed  rent,  were  not  only  destitute  of  political  fran- 
chises, but  were  adscripts  to  the  soil ;  "  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  their  lord,  without  appeal ; "  and  it  was 
added,  "  all  the  children  of  leet-men  shall  be  leet- 
men,  and  so  to  all  generations." l 

Grotius,  in  a  former  generation,  had  defended  sla- 
very as  a  rightful  condition ;  a  few  years  later,  and 
William  Penn  is  said  to  have  employed  the  labor  of 
African  bondmen ;  it  is  not  surprising  that  John  Locke 
could  propose,  without  compunction,  that  every  free- 
man of  Carolina  shall  have  absolute  power  and  author- 
ity over  his  negro  slaves. 

By  the  side  of  the  seigniories,  baronies,  and  manors, 
it  was  supposed  that  some  freeholders  would  also  be 
found  ;  no  elective  franchise  could  be  conferred  on  a 
freehold  of  less  than  fifty  acres,  and  no  eligibility  to 
the  parliament  on  a  freehold  of  less  than  five  hundred. 
All  executive  power,  and,  in  the  last  resort,  all  judi- 
ciary power,  rested  with  the  proprietaries  themselves. 
The  seven  subordinate  courts  had  each  a  proprietary 
for  its  chief;  and  of  the  forty-two  counsellors  of  whom 
they  were  composed,  twenty-eight  were  appointed  by 
the  proprietaries  and  the  nobility.  The  judiciary  was 
placed  far  beyond  the  reach  of  popular  influence.  Tc 
one  aristocratic  court  was  intrusted  the  superintend- 
ence of  the  press ;  and,  as  if  not  only  men  would 
submit  their  minds,  but  women  their  tastes,  and  clul- 

1  Constitutions,  sect.  22. 


CONSTITUTIONS   FOR  CAROLINA.  149 

dren  their  pastimes,  to  a  tribunal,  another  court  had  CHAP. 
cognizance  of  "ceremonies  and  pedigrees,"  "of  — *~*~ 
fashions  and  sports." l  Of  the  fifty  who  composed  the 
grand  council  of  Carolina,  fourteen  only  represented 
the  commons,  and  of  these  fourteen,  the  tenure  of 
office  was  for  life. 

The  constitutions  recognized  four  estates — the 
proprietaries,  the  landgraves,  the  caciques,  and  the 
commons.  In  the  parliament,  all  the  estates  assem- 
bled in  one  chamber ;  apart  from  the  proprietaries, 
who  might  appear  by  deputies,  the  commons  elected 
four  members  for  every  three  of  the  nobility  ;  but  the 
influence  of  a  great  landed  aristocracy  in  controlling 
elections  was  already  well  understood  ;  and  none  but 
large  proprietaries  were  eligible  to  the  parliament.  An 
aristocratic  majority  might,  therefore,  always  be  relied 
upon ;  but,  to  prevent  danger,  three  methods,  repro- 
duced, in  part,  in  modern  monarchical  constitutions, 
were  adopted  ;  the  proprietaries  reserved  to  themselves 
a  negative  on  all  the  proceedings  of  parliament ;  no 
subject  could  be  proposed — an  analogous  clause  existed 
in  the  charter  granted  by  Louis  XVIII.  to  France — 
except  through  the  grand  council ;  and  in  case  of  a 
constitutional  objection  to  a  law,  either  of  the  four  es- 
tates might  interpose  a  veto.  Popular  enfranchisement 
was  made  an  impossibility.  Executive,  judicial  and 
legislative  power  were  beyond  the  reach  of  the  people. 

A  few  singularities  were  in  harmony  with  the  great 
outlines  of  the  system.  In  trials  by  jury,  the  majority 
decided ;  a  rule  fatal  to  the  oppressed ;  for  where 
moral  courage  is  requisite  for  an  honest  verdict,  more 
than  a  small  minority  cannot  always  be  expected.- 
Another  clause,  which  declared  it  "a  base  and  vile 

1  Constitutions,  sect.  45. 


150  CONSTITUTIONS  FOR  CAROLINA. 

Cxm'  thing  to  plead  for  money  or  reward,"  could  not  but 
*— ~  compel  the  less  educated  classes  to  establish  between 
1669.  themselves  and  the  nobility  the  relation  of  clients  and 
patrons.  . 

Such  were  the  constitutions  devised  for  Carolina  by 
Shaftesbury  and  Locke,  by  the  statesman  who  was 
the  type  of  the  revolution  of  1688,  and  the  philoso- 
pher who  was  the  antagonist  of  Descartes  and  William 
Penn.  Several  American  writers  have  attempted  to 
exonerate  Locke  from  a  share  in  the  work  which  they 
condemn ;  but  the  constitutions,  with  the  exception  I 
have  named,  are  in  harmony  with  the  principles  of  his 
philosophy,  and  with  his  theories  on  government.  To 
his  late  old  age  he  preserved  with  care  the  evidence 
of  his  legislative  labors;  and  his  admirers  esteemed 
him  the  superior  of  the  contemporary  Quaker  king, 
the  rival  of  "  the  ancient  philosophers,"  to  whom  the 
1669  world  had  u  erected  statues."  The  constitutions  were 
July,  signed  on  the  twenty-first  of  July,  1669  ;  and  a  com- 
mission as  governor  was  issued  to  William  Sayle. 

In  a  second  draft  of  the  constitutions,  against  the 
wishes  of  Locke,  a  clause  was  interpolated,  declaring 
that  while  every  religion  should  be  tolerated,  the 
Church  of  England,  as  the  only  true  and  orthodox 
church,  was  to  be  the  national  religion  of  Carolina,  and 
was  alone  to  receive  public  maintenance  by  grants  from 
the  colonial  parliament.  This  revised  copy  was  not 
signed  till  March,  1670.  To  a  colony  of  which  the 
majority  were  likely  to  be  dissenters,  the  change  was 
vital ; l  it  was  scarcely  noticed  in  England,  where  the 
model  became  the  theme  of  extravagant  applause.  "  It 
is  without  compare,"  wrote  Blome,  in  1672.  "Empires," 
added  an  admirer  of  Shaftesbury,  "  will  be  ambitious 
of  subjection  to  the  noble  government  which  deep 

1  This  discovery  is  due  to  William  James  Rivers  of  Charleston,  S.  C. 


PROGRESS   OF   NORTH   CAROLINA.  151 

wisdom  has  projected  for  Carolina ;  " l   and  the  propri-  CHAP 
etaries  believed  they  had  set  their  seals  to  "  a  sacred  «—*•»- 
and  unalterable "  instrument,    which    they   fearlessly 
decreed  should  endure  "  forever." 

As  far  as  depended  upon  the  proprietaries,  the 
government  was  immediately  organized  ;  and  Monk, 
duke  of  Albemarle,  was  constituted  palatine.  But  the 
contrast  between  the  magnificent  model  of  a  constitu- 
tion and  the  humble  settlements  of  Carolina,  rendered 
the  inappropriateness  of  the  forms  too  ludicrously 
manifest.  Was  there  room  for  a  palatine  and  land 
graves,  for  barons  and  lords  of  manors,  for  an  admi- 
ralty court  and  a  court  of  heraldry,  among  the  scattered 
cabins  between  the  Chowan  and  the  ocean  ? 

Albemarle  had  been  increased  by  fresh  emigrants  1665 
from  New  England,  and  by  a  colony  of  ship-builders 
from  the  Bermudas,2  who  lived  contentedly  with 
Stevens  as  chief  magistrate,  under  a  very  wise  and  1667 
simple  form  of  government.  A  few  words  express  its 
outlines  ;  a  council  of  twelve,  six  named  by  the  propri- 
etaries, and  six  chosen  by  the  assembly ;  an  assembly, 
composed  of  the  governor,  the  council,  and  twelve 
delegates  from  the  freeholders  of  the  incipient  settle- 
ments,— formed  a  government  worthy  of  popular  confi- 
dence. No  interference  from  abroad  was  anticipated ; 
for  freedom  of  religion,  and  security  against  taxation, 
except  by  the  colonial  legislature,  were  solemnly  con- 
ceded. The  colonists  were  satisfied  ;  the  more  so,  as 
their  lands  were  confirmed  to  them,  by  a  solemn  grant,  May 
on  the  terms  which  they  themselves  had  proposed.3 

The  authentic  record  of  the   legislative   history  of  1C69 
North  "Carolina,   begins  with    the    autumn  of  1669,4 

1  W.    Talbot's     Dedication     of  2  Martin,  i.  142. 

Lederer's   Discoveries.       So,    too,  3  Williamson,  i.  259.     Martin,  i. 

Wilson,  in  the  Dedication,  in  1682,  146. 

to  his  tract  on  Carolina.  4  Chalmers,  525,  555,  from  pio- 


152  EARLY   LEGISLATION   IN   NORTH   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  when  the  legislators  of  Albemarle,  ignorant  of  th« 
-^^  scheme  which  Locke  and  Shaftesbury  were  maturing; 
1669.  framed  a  few  laws,  which,  however  open  to  objection, 
were  suited  to  the  character,  opinions,  and  manners,  ol 
the  inhabitants,  and  which,  therefore,  endured  long 
after  the  designs  of  Locke  were  abandoned  in  despair. 
New  settlements  invite  the  adventurer  and  welcome 
the  needy.  The  strictest  rule  for  the  recovery  of 
debts,  so  much  desired  in  mercantile  communities, 
where  large  trusts  are  necessarily  reposed  in  indi- 
viduals, and  where  delay  becomes  a  failure,  was  not 
suited  to  the  less  anxious  lives  and  the  universal 
hospitality  of  a  purely  agricultural  community.  The 
planters  of  Albemarle,  giving  a  five  years'  security  to 
the  emigrant  debtor,  enacted  that  none  should  for  five 
years  be  sued  for  any  cause  of  action  arising  out  of 
the  country.  Marriage  was  made  a  civil  contract, 
requiring  for  its  validity  nothing  more  than  the  consent 
of  parties  before  a  magistrate  with  witnesses.  New 
settlers  were  exempted  from  taxation  for  a  year.  Was 
it  the  care  for  peace,  or  the  instinct  of  monopoly, 
which  prohibited  strangers  from  trading  with  the 
neighboring  Indians  ?  As  every  adventurer  who  joined 
the  colony  received  a  bounty  in  land,  frauds  were 
checked  by  withholding  a  perfect  title,  till  the  emigrant 
should  have  resided  two  years  in  the  colony.  The 
members  of  this  early  legislature  probably  received  no 
compensation ;  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  governor 
and  council,  a  fee  of  thirty  pounds  of  tobacco  was 
exacted  in  every  lawsuit.  Such  was  the  simple 
legislation  of  men,  who,  being  destitute  of  fortune,  had 

pnetary  papers,  and  therefore  the  The  assembly  referred  to  in  the 

nearest  approach  to  original  author-  grant  of  May  1,   1668,  must  have 

ity.     Martin,  i.    145,   changes  the  been  an  earlier  assembly, 
date  on    inconclusive    arguments. 


THE   CONSTITUTIONS   REJECTED.  153 

roamed  in  quest  of  it.     The  laws  were  sufficient,  were  CHAP. 
,,        ,  .  ,    .      XIH. 

confirmed    by   the    proprietaries,    were    reenacted   in  — -v~»- 

1715,  and  were  valid  in  North  Carolina  for  more  than  167^ 
half  a  century.1 

Hardly  had  these  few  laws  been  established,  when 
the  new  constitution  was  forwarded  to  Albemarle,  and 
the  governor  was. doomed  to  repeated  fruitless  attempts  I6o70 
at  its  introduction.       The  nature  of  the  people  ren-  1674. 
dered    its    introduction    impossible ;    and   its  promul- 
gation   did    but    favor   anarchy    by    invalidating    the 
existing   system,   which   it  could  not    replace.      The 
proprietaries,  contrary  to  stipulations  with  the  colonists, 
superseded  the  existing  government ;  and  the  colonists 
resolutely  rejected  the  substitute. 

Far  different  was  the  welcome  with  which  the 
people  of  North  Carolina  met  the  first  messengers  of 
religion.  From  the  commencement  of  the  settlement,  1672 
there  seems  not  to  have  been  a  minister  in  the  land; 
there  was  no  public  worship  but  such  as  burst  from 
the  hearts  of  the  people  themselves,  if  at  times  natural 
feeling  took  the  form  of  words,  and  the  planters  hailed 
Heaven  as  they  went  forth  to  the  tasks  of  the  morn- 
ing. But  man  is  by  nature  prone  to  religious  impres- 
sions ;  and  when  at  last  William  Edmundson  came  to 
visit  his  Quaker  brethren  among  the  groves  of  Albe- 
marle, "  he  met  with  a  tender  people  ; " 2  delivered 
his  doctrine  "  in  the  authority  of  truth,"  and  made 
converts  to  the  society  of  Friends.  A  quarterly  meet- 
ing of  discipline  was  established;  and  the  society,  of 
which  opposition  to  spiritual  authority  is  the  badge,  ( 
was  the  first  to  organize  a  religious  government  in 
Carolina.3 

i  Martin,  i.  146.          2  Fox's  Journal.  453         a  Martin,  i.  155,  15(5. 
VOL.  II.  20 


154  GEORGE  FOX  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

CXIHP'  ^n  ^C  autumn  °f  tne  same  JearJ  George  Fox,  the 
-— • — "  father  of  the  sect,  the  upright  man,  who  could  say  of 
1672  himself,  "  What  I  am  in  words,  I  am  the  same  in  life,"1 
travelled  across  "  the  great  bogs,"  of  the  Dismal 
Swamp,  commonly  "  laying  abroad  anights  in  the 
woods  by  a  fire,"  till  at  last  he  reached  a  house  in 
Carolina,  and  obtained  the  luxury  of  a  mat  by  the 
fireside.  Carolina  had  ever  been  the  refuge  of  Quakers 
and  "  renegadoes  "2  from  ecclesiastical  oppression  ;  and 
Fox  was  welcomed  to  their  safe  asylum.  The  people 
"  lived  lonely  in  the  woods,"  with  no  other  guardian  to 
their  solitary  houses  than  a  watch-dog.  There  have  been 
religious  communities,  which,  binding  themselves  by  a 
vow  to  a  life  of  study  and  reflection,  have  planted  their 
monasteries  in  the  solitudes  of  the  desert,  on  the  place 
where  they  might  best  lift  up  their  hearts  to  contem- 
plative enjoyments.  Here  was  a  colony  of  men  from 
civilized  life,  scattered  among  the  forests,  hermits  with 
wives  and  children,  resting  on  the  bosom  of  nature,  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  wilderness  of  their  gentle 
clime.  With  absolute  freedom  of  conscience,  benevo- 
lent reason  was  the  simple  rule  of  their  conduct.  Such 
was  the  people  to  whom  George  Fox  explained  the 
beautiful  truth  that  gives  vitality  to  his  sect,  "  open- 
ing many  things  concerning  the  light  and  spirit 
of  God  that  is  in  every  one,"  without  distinction  of 
education  or  race.  He  became  the  guest  of  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  province,  who,  with  his  wife,  "  received 
him  lovingly."  The  plantations  of  that  day  were 
v  upon  the  bay,  and  along  the  streams  that  flow  into  it ; 
the  rivers  and  the  inlets  were  the  highways  of  Caro- 
lina ;  the  boat  and  the  lighter  birchen  skiff  the  only 

»  Fox,  345.  8  Lord  Culpepper,  in  Chalmers,  356. 


GEORGE  FOX  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA.  155 

equipage ;  every  man  knew  how  to  handle  the  oar ;  CHAP. 
and  there  was  hardly  a  woman  in  the  land  but  could  ^~ 
paddle  a  canoe.1  As  Fox  continued  his  journey,  the  1672 
governor,  having  been  admonished  to  listen  to  the 
voice  of  truth  in  the  oracles  of  nature,  accompanied 
him  to  the  water's  edge ;  and,  as  the  chief  magistrate 
of  North  Carolina  and  the  envoy  of  humanity  travelled 
together  on  foot  through  the  ancient  woods,  it  might 
indeed  have  seemed,  far  more  than  in  the  companion- 
ship of  Shaftesbury  and  Locke,  that  the  days  of  the 
legislation  of  philosophy  were  about  to  be  revived. 
For  in  the  character  of  his  wisdom,  in  the  method  of 
its  acquisition  by  deep  feeling,  reflection,  and  travel, 
and  in  its  fruits,  George  Fox  far  more  nearly  resembled 
the  simplicity  of  the  ancient  sages,  the  peers  of  Tha- 
les  and  Solon,  whom  common  fame  has  immortalized 
From  the  house  of  the  governor  the  traveller  continued 
his  journey  to  the  residence  of  "  Joseph  Scot,  one 
of  the  representatives  of  the  country,"  where  he 
had  "  a  sound  and  precious  meeting  "  with  the  people. 
His  eloquence  reached  their  hearts,  for  he  did  but 
assert  the  paramount  value  of  the  impulses  and  feelings 
which  had  guided  them  in  the  wilderness.  George 
Fox  "  had  a  sense  of  all  conditions  ;  "  for  "  how  else 
could  he  have  spoken  to  all  conditions  ?  "  2  At  another 
meeting,  "  the  chief  secretary  of  the  province,"  who 
u  had  been  formerly  convinced,"  was  present ;  and 
Fox  became  his  guest,  yet  not  without  "  much  ado ; " 
for,  as  the  boat  approached  his  plantation,  it  grounded 
in  the  shallow  channel,  and  could  not  be  brought  to 

'  O 

shore.     But  a  little  skiff  shot  promptly  to  the  traveller's 


1  Comp.  Lawson,  84.  So,  too,  2  Fox,  65.  The  visit  to  Caroli- 
Bnckell's  Natural  Hist  of  N.  C.  na,  at  pp.  458,  &c.  Philadelphia 
p.  33.  stereotype  edition. 


156  GOVERNMENT  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

CHAP,  relief;  the  wife  of  the  secretary  of  state  came  herself 

AIM. 

— »-~  in  a  canoe,  and  brought  him  to  her  hospitable  home. 
As  Fox  turned  again  towards  Virginia,  he  could  say 
that  he  had  found  the  people  of  North  Carolina  "  gen- 
erally tender  and  open  ;  "  and  that  he  had  made  among 
them  "  a  little  entrance  for  truth."  If  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  constitutions  of  Locke  had  before  been 
difficult,  it  was  now  become  impossible. 

While  it  was  thus  practically  uncertain  what  was 

1674.  the  government  of  North  Carolina,  the  country  was 

left  without  a  governor  by  the  death  of  Stevens.    The 

assembly,  conforming  to  a  prudent  instruction  of  the 

proprietaries,    elected   a    successor;    and  Cartwright, 

their  speaker,  acted  for  two  years  at  the  head  of  the 

to     administration.     But  the  difficulty  of  introducing  the 

676>  model  did  not  diminish;  and,  having  failed  to  preserve 

order,    Cartwright    resolved    to  lay  the  state    of  the 

country   before   the   proprietaries,   and    embarked    for 

England.     At  the  same  time,  the  representatives  of 

1676.  Albemarle  sent  Eastchurch,  the  new  speaker  of  their 
assembly,  to  explain  their  grievances. 

It  marks,  in  some  measure,  a  good  disposition  in  the 
proprietaries,  that  they  selected  Eastchurch,  the  mes 
Nov.  senger  from  the  colony,  to  be  its  governor  ;  but  Miller, 
whom  the  colonists  had  formerly  driven  into  Virginia, 
was  at  the  same  time  appointed  secretary  of  the  prov- 
ince and  collector  of  the  customs  ;  and  the  constitu- 
tions and  act  of  navigation  could  never  be  acceptable. 
There  was  little  direct  commerce  between  Albe- 
marle and  England  ;  the  new  officers  embarked  for 
Carolina  by  way  of  the  West  Indies,  where  Eastchurch 
remained  for  a  season  ;  while  Miller  proceeded  to  the 

1677.  province,  in  which  he  was  now  to  hold  the  triple  office 
of  president  or  governor,  secretary,  and  collector. 


SPIRIT  OF  INDEPENDENCE   IN    NORTH   CAR3LINA.  157 

The  government  had  for  about  a  year  been  left  in  CHAP 

•  XITI. 

what  royalists  called  "  ill  order  and  worse   hands  ; " *  — v-i. 

that  is,  it  had  been  a  government  of  the  people  them-  1C77 
selves,  favoring  popular  liberty,  even  to  the  protection 
of  the  friends  of  colonial  independence.  The  suppres- 
sion of  a  fierce  insurrection  of  the  people  of  Virginia, 
had  been  followed  by  the  vindictive  fury  of  ruthless 
punishments ;  and  "  runaways,  rogues,  and  rebels,'" 
that  is  to  say,  fugitives  from  arbitrary  tribunals,  non- 
conformists, and  friends  to  popular  liberty,  "  fled  daily 
to  Carolina,  as  their  common  subterfuge  and  lurking- 
place."  Did  letters  from  the  government  of  Virginia 
demand  the  surrender  of  leaders  in  the  rebellion, 
Carolina  refused  to  betray  the  fugitives  who  sought 
shelter  in  her  forests.2 

The  presence  of  such  emigrants  made  oppression 
more  difficult  than  ever ;  but  here,  as  throughout  the 
colonies,  the  navigation  acts  were  the  cause  for  greater 
restlessness  and  more  permanent  discontent.  And 
never  did  national  avarice  exhibit  itself  more  meanly 
than  in  the  relations  of  English  legislation  to  North 
Carolina.  The  whole  state  hardly  contained  four 
thousand  inhabitants  ; 3  a  few  fat  cattle,  a  little  maize, 
and  eight  hundred  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  formed  all 
their  exports  ;  their  humble  commerce  had  attracted 
none  but  small  vessels  from  New  England ;  and  the 
mariners  of  Boston,  guiding  their  vessels  through  the 
narrow  entrances  of  the  bay,  brought  to  the  doors  of 
the  scattered  planters  the  few  foreign  articles  which 


1  Proprietaries,  in  Williamson,  and  the  context  hardly  favors  his 

i.  2o2.  interpretation ;    runaways  seem  to 

2  Berry  and  Morrison,  in  Burk's  have  been  fugitives  from  what  the 

Virginia,  ii.  259.    Martin,  i.  166,  in-  royalists  called  justice, 

terprets  runaways  to  mean  negroes.  3  Chalmers,  533.     The  account? 

The  whole  tenor  of  the  document  of  the  population  are  contradictory. 


158  SPIRIT    OF   INDEPENDENCE  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA 

CHAP,  the  exchange  of  their  produce  could  purchase.     Ana 

yet  this  inconsiderable  traffic,  so  little  alluring,  but  so 

1677.  convenient  to  the  colonists,  was  envied  by  the  English 
merchant ;  the  law  of  1672  was  now  to  be  enforced  ; 
the  traders  of  Boston  were  to  be  crowded  from  the  mar- 
ket by  an  unreasonable  duty  ;  and  the  planters  to  send 
their  harvests  to  England  as  they  could.1 

How  unwelcome,  then,  must  have  been  the  pres 
ence  of  Miller,  who  levied  the  hateful  tribute  of  a 
penny  on  every  pound  of  tobacco  exported  to  New 
England !  A  jealousy  of  the  northern  colonies  was 
also  fostered ;  "  they  cannot,"  it  was  urged,2  "  be 
friends  to  the  prosperity  of  Carolina,  which  will  cer- 
tainly in  time  render  them  inconsiderable."  But  the 
antiquated  prejudices  of  Europe  were  not  to  gain 
entrance  beyond  the  Atlantic ;  and  never  did  one 
American  colony  repine  at  the  increase  of  another. 
The  traffic  with  Boston  continued,  though  burdened 
with  a  tax  which  produced  an  annual  revenue  of  twelve 
thousand  dollars — an  enormous  burden  for  the  petty 
commerce  and  the  few  inhabitants  of  that  day.  NOT 
was  this  all ;  the  traders  were  exposed  to  so  much  vio- 
lence and  harshness  from  Miller,  that  they  were  with 
difficulty  persuaded  not  to  abandon  the  country. 

The  planters  of  Albemarle  were  men  who  had 
been  led  to  the  choice  of  their  residence  from  a  hatred 
of  restraint,  and  had  lost  themselves  among  the  woods 
in  search  of  independence.  Are  there  any  who  doubt 
man's  capacity  for  self-government,  let  them  study  the 
history  of  North  Carolina ;  its  inhabitants  were  rest- 
less and  turbulent  in  their  imperfect  submission  to  a 
government  imposed  on  them  from  abroad  ;  the  admin- 
istration of  the  colony  was  firm,  humane,  and  tranquil 

i  Martin,  1. 167.  a  Chalmers,  534. 


SUCCESSFUL   INSURRECTION  IN   NORTH   CAROLINA.  159 

when  they  were  left  to  take  care  of  themselves.     Any  CHAP 

XIII. 

government    but   one    of  their   own    institution   was  -~^ 
oppressive.  1678 

The  attempt  at  enforcing  the  navigation  acts  has- 
tened an  insurrection,  which  was  fostered  by  the 
refugees  from  Virginia  and  the  New  England  men ; 
and  which,  having  been  the  effect  of  deliberate  con- 
tiivance,1  was  justified  by  the  first  American  manifesto. 
It  became  the  disciples  of  George  Fox  and  the  people 
ol  Carolina  to  act  in  harmony  with  their  consciences, 
and  to  publish  to  the  world  the  motives  to  their  con- 
duct. Excessive  taxation,  an  abridgment  of  political 
liberty  by  the  change  in  the  form  of  government, 
with  the  "  denial  of  a  free  election  of  an  assembly," 
and  the  unwise  interruption  of  the  natural  channels  of 
commerce,  were  the  threefold  grievances  of  the  colony. 
The  leader  in  the  insurrection  was  John  Culpepper, 
one  of  those  "  very  ill  men"  who  loved  popular  liberty, 
and  whom  the  royalists  of  that  day  denounced  as  having 
merited  "  hanging,  for  endeavoring  to  set  the  poor 
people  to  plunder  the  rich."2  One  of  the  counsellors 
joined  in  the  rebellion ; 3  the  rest,  with  Miller,  were 
imprisoned  ;  "  that  thereby  the  country  may  have  a 
free  parliament,  and  may  send  home  their  grievances."4 
The  events  that  followed  prove  the  sincerity  of  this 
plea ;  for  North  Carolina  was  much  infected  with  that 
passion  for  representative  government,  which  was  the 
epidemic  of  America.  Having  deposed  and  impris- 
oned the  president  and  the  deputies  of  the  proprieta- 
ries and  set  at  nought  the  acts  of  parliament,  the 

1  Papers  in  Williamson,  L  265.  assembly."      This,  Williamson,  i. 

2  Williamson,  L  263.  134,  classes  among  weak  and  flim- 

3  Ibid.  266.  sy  arguments.      Why    should    an 

4  Manifesto.      "  The    president  apologist  for  Bacon  clamor  against 
nath  denied  a  fieo   election  of  an  Culpepper? 


160      SUCCESSFUL  NSURRECTION  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

°xm'  I)e°P^e  recovered  from  anarchy,  tranquilly  organized  a 
-—-"""'  government,  and    established  courts  of  justice.     The 

1678.  msurrection   was   a   deliberate    rising   of  the    people 
against  the    pretensions  of  the  proprietaries  and  the 
laws  of  navigation  ;  the  uneducated  population  of  that 
day  formed  conclusions  as  just  as  those  which  a  cen- 
tury later  pervaded  the  country.     Eastchurch  arrived 
in   Virginia ;   but  his  commission  and  authority  were 
derided ;    and   he  himself  was  kept  out  '^y  force  of 
arms ; l    while    the    insurgents,    among    whom    was 
George    Durant,  the  oldest  landholder  in  Albemarle, 

1679.  having   completed    their   institutions,  sent  Culpepper 
and  another  to  England  to  negotiate  a  compromise. 
It  proves  in  Culpepper  a  conviction  of  his  own   recti- 
tude, that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  the  trust. 

But  the  late  president  and  his  fellow-sufferers,  hav- 
ing escaped  from  confinement  in  Carolina,  appeared 
also  in  England  with  adverse  complaints.  To  a  strug- 
gle between  the  planters  and  the  proprietaries,  the 
English  public  had  been  indifferent ;  but  Miller  pre- 
sented himself  as  the  champion  of  the  navigation 
acts,  and  enlisted  in  his  favor  the  jealous  anger  of  the 
mercantile  cities.  Culpepper,  just  as  he  was  embark- 
ing for  America,  was  taken  into  custody,  and  his  inter- 
ference with  the  collecting  of  duties,  which  he  was 
charged  with  embezzling,  and  which  there  is  no 
reason  to  believe  he  had  applied  to  other  than  public 
pin-poses,  stimulated  a  prosecution  ;  while  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  proprietaries  was  held  to  justify  an  indict- 
ment for  an  act  of  high  treason,  committed  without 
the  realm. 

A  statute  of  Henry  VIII.2  was  the  authority  for 
arraigning  a  colonist  before  an  English  jury — an  act  of 

i  Williamson,  L  264.  2  35  Henry  VIII.  c.  ^ 


THE  REBEL  ACQUITTED  BY  AN  ENGLISH  JURY. 

tyranny  against   which    Culpepper   vainly   protested,  CHAP 
claiming  "  to  be  tried  in  Carolina,  where  the  offence  — *^ 
was   committed." — "  Let  no  favor  be  shown  him,"  l 
said  Lauderdale  and  the  lords  of  the  plantations.     But 
when  he  was  brought  up  for  trial,  Shaftesbury,  who  at  1680 

.    &  ,  .  ,        '  .  .    June. 

that  time  was  in  the  zenith  or  popularity,  courted 
every  form  of  popular  influence,  and,  with  clear  sagacity, 
penetrated  the  injustice  of  the  accusation,  appeared  in 
his  defence,  and  procured  his  acquittal.2  Thus  was 
the  insurrection  in  Carolina  excused  by  the  verdict  of 
an  English  jury. 

But  how  should  the  proprietaries  establish  their  au- 
thority in  the  plantations  ?  Should  they  send  an  armed 
force  to  hunt  the  planters  »from  their  houses  ?  The  pro- 
prietaries had  for  the  motive  of  their  conduct  the  love  of 
gain ;  and  a  violent  government  would  have  been  too  cost- 
ly and  unproductive  an  enterprise.  Avarice,  therefore, 
compelled  moderation  ;  and  a  compromise  was  offered. 
But  a  compromise  was  the  confession  of  weakness. 
It  was  a  natural  expedient  to  send  one  of  the  proprie- 
taries themselves  to  look  after  the  interests  of  the 
company ;  and  Seth  Sothel,  who  had  purchased  the 
rights  of  Lord  Clarendon,  was  selected  for  the  pur- 
pose. But  Sothel,  on  his  voyage,  was  taken  captive  1680 
by  the  Algerines. 

Meantime,  the  temporary  government  of  Carolina,   167S 
under    Harvey,    Jenkins,    and    Wilkinson,    had    been  1683 


1  Report  in  Williamson,  i.  266.  135,   calls   the    fathers    of    North 

2  Chalmers,  537,  and  documents.  Carolina  a  set  of  "  rioters  and  rob- 
Martin,  i.  170,  171.     Williamson,  i.  hers."  Shaftesbury  and  the  English 
133.     Chalmers,  with  great  consis-  jury  were  more  just  than  the  histo- 
tency,  condemned   Culpepper,  just  rian.     The   fact  that  George   Du- 
as  he  condemned  Bacon  and  Jef-  raait,  one  of  the   earliest  settlers, 
ferson,  Hancock  and   John  Adams,  was  concerned  in  the  insurrection, 
But  Williamson  has  allowed  him-  identifies  it  with  the  genuine  peo- 
eelf  to  be  confused  by  the  judg-  pie,  the  old  inhabitants  of  Carolina, 
ments  of   royalists,  and,  vol.  i.  p. 

VOL.  II.  21 


162  NORTH  CAROLINA  AFTER  THE  INSURRECTION. 


,  abandoned,  or  intrusted   by  the   proprietaries  to  the 

.* 

^^-  friends    of    the    insurgents.      I    find    the    name    of 

1680.  Robert  Holden,1  Culpepper's  associate  and  colleague, 
as  receiver-general,  while  "  the  traitor,  George  Du- 
rant,"2  quietly  discharged  the  duty  of  a  judge. 
"  Settle  order  amongst  yourselves,"3  wrote  the  pro- 

if.el.  prietaries  ;  and  order  had  already  been  settled  by  the 
wise  moderation  of  the  government.4  Would  the  dis- 
ciples of  Fox  subscribe  to  the  authority  of  the  propri- 
etaries?  "  Yes,"  they  replied,  "  with  heart  and  hand, 
to  the  best  of  our  capacities  and  understandings,  so 
far  as  is  consonant  with  God's  glory  and  the  advance- 
ment of  his  blessed  truth  ;  "  5  and  the  restricted  promise 

1681  was  accepted.  An  act  of  amnesty,  on  easy  condi- 
tions, was  adopted  ;  but  the  feeling  of  personal  inde- 
pendence, and  the  very  nature  of  life  in  the  New 
World,  were  firmer  guaranties  of  security  than  all 
promises  of  pardon. 

It  is  said  that  the  popular  administration  did 
not  wholly  refrain  from  persecuting  the  few  royal- 
ists in  the  province  ;  6  but,  if  complaints  were  made, 
no  act  of  injustice  appears  to  have  required  the 

1  MSS.  communicated  to  me  by  late   governor   of  North   Carolina. 

D.  L.  Swain.  Harvey  had  ceased  to  be  governor 

~  Same  manuscripts.  in  June,  1680. 

3  Chalmers,  539.  5  MSS.  from  D.  L.  Swain,  copied 

4  I  narrowly  escaped  being  de-  from  the  records  of  Berkley    Pre- 
ceived  by  the  passage  in  Martin,  i.  cinct 

173.       "  President   Harvey,  whom        6  The  passage  in  Chalmers,  539, 

he     (Wilkinson)     relieved,"     &c.  nearly  resembles  many  similar  ones 

How  could  a  man  write  so  careless-  in  his  volume.     His  account,  in  nil 

ly  and  so  positively  ?     Harvey  was  cases  of  the  kind,  mtttt  be  received 

president  but  a  few   months  ;  and  with  great  hesitancy.    The  coloring 

'  those  implicated  in  the  late  re-  is  always  wrong  ;  the  facts  usually 

volt  w  were  the  dominant  party.     It  perverted.     He  writes  like  a  lawyer 

is  not  history  which  is  treacherous,  and  a  disappointed    politician  ;  not 

but  hasty  writers,  who  are  credu  like  a  calm  inquirer.      His  state- 

lous   and  careless.      I   was   saved  ments  are  copied  by  Graham,  ob- 

from   trusting  Martin  by  William-  scared  by  Martin,  and,  strange  to 

son,  i.  137,  who  speaks  of  John  Jen-  say,   exaggerated   by   Williamson 

kins  as  governor  ;  and  still  more  by  i.  138. 
MSS.  liberally  furnished  me  bv  the 


SOTHEL'S   ADMINISTRATION   IN   NORTH   CAROLINA.  1&3 

rebuke  of  the  proprietaries,  or  the  censure  of  the  sove-  CHAP 
reign.      It  is  certain,   that    Sothel,   on   reaching  the  ~~^. 
colony,  found    tranquillity  established.     The  counties  1683 
were  quiet  and  well  regulated,  because  not  subjected 
to  a  foreign  sway  ;  the  planters,  in  peaceful  independ- 
ence, enjoyed  the  good  will  of  the  wilderness.     Sothel 
arrived,  and  the  scene  was  changed. 

Sothel  was  of  the  same  class  of  governors  with 
Cranfield  of  New  Hampshire.  He  was  one  of  the 
eight  proprietaries,  and  had  accepted  the  government 
in  the  hope  of  acquiring  a  fortune.  From  among 
many  as  infamous  as  himself,  historians  have  selected 
him  as  the  most  infamous.1  Many  colonial  governors 
displayed  rapacity  and  extortion  towards  the  people ; 
Sothel  cheated  his  proprietary  associates,  as  well  as  1683 
plundered  the  colonists.  To  the  colonists  he  could  not 
be  acceptable,  for  it  was  his  duty  to  establish  the  con- 
stitutions, and  enforce  the  navigation  acts.  To  intro- 
duce the  constitutions  was  impossible,  unless  for  one 
who  could  transform  a  log  cabin  into  a  baronial  castle, 
a  negro  slave  into  a  herd  of  leet-men.  And  how 
could  one  man,  without  soldiers,  and  without  a  vessel 
of  war,  enforce  the  navigation  acts  ?  Having  neither 
the  views  nor  the  qualities  of  a  statesman,  Sothel  had 
no  higher  purpose  than  to  satiate  his  sordid  passions ; 
and,  like  so  many  others,  employed  his  power  to 
gratify  his  covetousness,  by  exacting  unjust  fees,  or  by 
engrossing  traffic  with  the  Indians.  His  object  was 
money ;  he  valued  his  office  as  the  means  of  gaining 
it.  That  the  charges  against  him  are  vague,  extending 
in  no  case  to  loss  of  life,  or  to  any  specific  act  of  cru- 

i  Chalmers,  539.     All  are  agreed  209,  210,  where  an  accuser  of  86- 

m  the  sordid  worthlessness  of  So-  thel  is  himself  proved  before  a  jury 

thel.     But  Williamson,  i.  270,  must  to  have  been  "  a  cheating  rogue." 
be   compared   with  Williamson,  i. 


164  SOTHEL'S   ADMINISTRATION   IN   NORTH   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  elty,  seems  to  prove  that  his  avarice  was  not  singularly 
-~^-'  exorbitant.  Had  he  done  much  more  than  practise 
the  usual  arts  of  exaction  with  which  nearly  every 
royal  province  was  becoming  familiar  ?  But  the  peo- 
ple of  North  Carolina,  already  experienced  in  rebellion, 
1688  having  borne  with  him  about  five  years,  at  length  de- 
posed him  without  bloodshed,  and  appealed  once 
more  to  the  proprietaries.  It  is  conclusive  proof  that 
Sothel  had  committed  no  acts  of  wanton  wickedness, 
that  he  preferred  a  request  to  submit  his  case  to  an 
assembly,  fearing  the  colonists,  whom  he  had  pillaged, 
less  than  the  men  whom  he  had  betrayed.  His 
request  was  granted,  and  the  colony  condemned  him 
to  a  twelve  months'  exile,  and  a  perpetual  incapacity 
for  the  government.1 

Here  was  a  double  grief  to  the  proprietaries ;  the 
rapacity  of  Sothel  was  a  breach  of  trust ;  the  judgment 
of  the  assembly  an  ominous  usurpation.  The  planters 
of  North  Carolina  recovered  tranquillity  so  soon  as 
they  escaped  the  misrule  from  abroad  ;  and,  sure  of 
amnesty,  esteemed  themselves  the  happiest  people  on 
earth.  They  loved  the  pure  air  and  clear  skies  of  their 
"summer  land."2  True,  there  was  no  fixed  minister 
in  the  land  till  1703;3  no  church  erected  till  1705;  no 
separate  building  for  a  court-house  till  1722;  no  print- 
ing-press till  1754.4  Careless  of  religious  sects,  or  col- 
leges, or  lawyers,  or  absolute  laws,  the  early  settlers 
enjoyed  liberty  of  conscience  and  personal  independ- 
ence ;  freedom  of  the  forest  and  of  the  river.  The 
children  of  nature  listened  to  the  inspirations  of 
nature.  From  almost  every  plantation  they  enjoyed  a 

i  Compare  Chalmers,  539,  540.  2  Lawson,  63,  80. 

Williamson,  i.  136—141;    Martin,  3  Martin,  i.  218,  219. 

i.  176,   186.— Hewat,  L    103,  104,  4  Thomas's  History  of  Printing 

writes  confusedly.  ii.  150 


THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  165 

noble   prospect  of  spacious  rivers,  of  pleasant  mead-  CHAP 
ows,   enamelled    with    flowers ;    of    primeval    forests,  — v*. 
where   the  loftiest  branches  of  the   tulip-tree  or  the 
magnolia  were  wrapped  in  jasmines  and  honeysuckles. 
For  them  the  wild  bee  stored  its  honey  in  hollow  trees  ; 
for  them  unnumbered  swine  fattened  on  the  fruits  of 
the  forest  or  the  heaps  of  peaches  ;  for  them,  in  spite 
of  their  careless  lives  and  imperfect  husbandry,  cattle 
multiplied    on     the    pleasant    savannahs ;    and    they 
desired    no    greater    happiness    than   they   enjoyed.1 
What    though    Europe    was  rocked  to  its  centre   by 
commotions  ?     What  though  England  was  changing 
its   constitution  ?     Should   the    planter   of  Albemarle 
trouble  himself  for  Holland  or  France  ?  for  James  II.  or 
William  of  Orange  ?  for  a  popish  party  or  a  high  church 
party  ?     Almost  all  the  American  colonies  were  chiefly 
settled  by  those  to  whom  the  uniformities  of  European 
life  were  intolerable ;  North  Carolina  was  settled  by 
the  freest  of  the  free  ;  by  men  to  whom  the  restraints 
of  other  colonies  were  too  severe ;  they  were  not  so 
much   caged   in   the   woods    as    scattered    in   lonely 
granges.     There  was  neither  city  nor  township  ;  there 
was  hardly  even  a  hamlet,  or  one  house  within  sight  of 
another ;    nor  were  there  roads,  except  as  the  paths 
from  house  to  house  were  distinguished  by  notches  in 
the  trees.2     But  the  settlers  were  gentle  in  their  tem- 
pers, of  serene  minds,  enemies  to  violence  and  blood- 
shed.    Not  all  the  successive  revolutions  had  kindled 
vindictive  passions  ;  freedom,  entire  freedom,  was  en- 
ioyed   without   anxiety    as    without  guaranties ;     the 
charities  of  life  were  scattered  at  their  feet,  like   the 
flowers  on  their  meadows  ;  and  the  spirit  of  humanity 

i  Brickell,  32,  46,  91,  154,  256,  259.  a  Brickell,  262,  263. 


166 


FIRST   SETTLEMENTS   IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA. 


CHAP.  maintained  its  influence  in  the  Arcadia,   as   royalist 

-\  1 11  * 

- — •"  writers  will  have  it,  "of  rogues  and  rebels."  in  the 
paradise  of  Quakers. 

Of  South  Carolina,  the  first  settlement  was  founded 
by  the  proprietaries,  and  resembled  in  its  origin  an  in- 
vestment of  capital  by  a  company  of  land-jobbers,  who 
furnished  the  emigrants  with  the  means  ot  embarking 
for  America,  established  on  its  shores  their  own  com- 
mercial agent,  and  undertook  for  themselves  the  man- 
agement of  all  commercial  transactions.  But  success 
attended  neither  the  government  which  they  instituted, 
nor  the  industry  which  they  fostered.  Self-government, 
in  private  labors  and  in  public  administration,  alone 
possesses  the  elasticity  which  can  have  due  reference 
to  the  materials  of  society,  and  adapt  itself  to  every 
emergency  and  condition.  South  Carolina  was  a 
scene  of  turbulence  till  the  constitutions  were  aban- 
doned ;  and  industry  was  unproductive  till  the  colonists 
despised  patronage  and  relied  on  themselves. 

1670.  It  was  in  January,  1670,  more  than  a  month  before 
the  revised  Model  was  signed,  a  considerable  number 
of  emigrants  set  sail  for  Carolina,  which,  both  from 
climate  and  soil,  was  celebrated  in  advance  as  "  the 
beauty  and  envy  of  North  America."1  They  were 
conducted  by  Joseph  West,  as  commercial  agent  for 
the  proprietaries,  and  by  William  Sayle,  who  was 
probably  a  Presbyterian,  and  having  more  than  twenty 
years  before  made  himself  known  as  leader  in  an 
attempt  to  plant  an  "  Eleutheria  "  in  the  isles  of  the 
Gulf  of  Florida,  was  now  constituted  a  proprietary  gov- 
ernor, with  jurisdiction  extending  as  far  north  as  Cape 
Carteret,  as  far  south  as  the  Spaniards  would  tolerate. 

i  Talbot,  in  dedication  of  Lederer. 


FIRST  SETTLEMENTS   IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA.  167 

Having  touched  at  Ireland  and  Barbadoes,1  the  ships  CHAP 
which  bore  the  company  entered  the  well-known  ^-^ 
waters  where  the  fleet  of  Ribault  had  anchored,  and  167° 
examined  the  site  where  the  Huguenots  had  engraved 
the  lilies  of  France,  and  erected  the  fortress  of  Caro- 
lina.2 But  the  vicinity  of  Beaufort  was  not  destined 
to  harbor  the  first  colony  of  the  English ;  the  emi- 
grants, after  short  delay,3  sailed  into  Ashley  River,  and 
on  "  the  first  high  land,"  in  a  spot  that  seemed  "  con- 
venient for  tillage  and  pasturing,"  the  three4  ship- 
loads of  emigrants,  who  as  yet  formed  the  whole 
people  of  South  Carolina,  selected  their  resting-place, 
and  began  their  first  town.  Of  this  town  not  a 
vestige  remains,  except  the  line  of  a  moat,  which 
served  as  a  defence  against  Indians.  Every  log-house 
has  vanished,  and  the  site  is  absorbed  in  a  plantation.* 
Yet,  few  as  were  the  settlers,  who  had  come  to  take 
possession  of  the  vast  hunting-grounds  of  the  natives, 
no  immediate  danger  was  apprehended ;  epidemic 
sickness  and  sanguinary  wars  had  swept  away  the 
ancient  tribes,  and  left  the  neighboring  coasts  almost 
a  desert.6 

An  historian  of  South  Carolina7  has  related,  that  the 

1  Chalmers,  529,  says  Barbadoes ;  and,  after  a  surve) ,  sail  out  again, 
and    not    inadvertently.     Dalcho,  Chalmers,  530,  favors  the  error  into 
Hist,  of  Prot  Ep.  Church  in  S.  C.,  which   Ramsay   subsequently  fell, 
p.  9,  shows  that  Sayle  was  at  Ber-  Wilson,  in  his  Carolina,  p.  7,  says 
muda.     Dalcho  is    very  useful  for  nothing  of  Port  Royal.     "Ashley 
the  early  history  of  S.  C.,  and  is  River  first  settled  in  1670." 

more  scrupulous  than  Ramsay.  4  Wilson's  Carolina,  7. 

2  Ramsay,  i.  34  and  2.  5  Drayton's  S.  Carolina,  200. 

3  Ramsay  says,  i.  2,  in  1671.  He  6  Archdale's  Carolina,  2.  I  am 
ia  in  error.  See  Dalcho,  9.  See,  indebted  to  P.  Ravenel,  of  Charles- 
also,  Dalcho,  p.  10,  where  it  appears  ton,  a  descendant  of  the  Hugue- 

hat,  May  1,  1671,  it  was  known  in  note,  for  this  work,  and  other  valua- 

'"Jngland  that  the  colony  had  planted  ble  materials. 

>n  Ashley  River.  There  is  no  evi-  ?  Ramsay,  i.  34,  35.  The  error 
dence  that  the  ships  did  more  than  is  clearly  refuted  in  Dalcho,  11  and 
•ail  into  the  harbor  of  Port  Royal,  16.  Comp.  Chalmers,  529. 


168  INSTITUTION   OF   GOVERNMENT   IN   S.   C 

CHAP,  emigrants  at  first  submitted  to  "  a  species  of  military 
— -~^-  government."      This   is   error.      The  emigrants  had 

1670.  hardly  landed,  before  they  instituted  a  government  on 
the  basis  of  liberty.     A  true  copy  of  the  original  fun- 
damental constitutions  had  been  furnished  them  :  but 
it   was    indeed    impossible    "  to   execute    the    grand 
model."     As  easily  might  trees  have  been  turned  into 
cathedrals,  or  castles,  at  a  word,  erected  in  those  solitary 
groves  on  the  savannahs,  that  resembled  the  parks  in 
England  ; l  the  laws  of  the  moral  world  are  unyield- 
ing.      A   parliamentary   convention   was    held ;    five 
members  of  the  grand  council  were  elected  to  act  with 
five  whom  the  proprietaries  had  appointed  ;  the  whole 
body  possessed  a  veto  on  the  executive ;  and,  with  the 
governor  and  twenty  delegates,  who  were  now  elected 
by  the  people,  constituted  the  legislature  of  the  prov- 

1672.  ince.  Representative  government  was  established 
l^1  and  continued  to  be  cherished.  In  1672,  all  previous 
parliaments  and  parliamentary  conventions  tvere  dis- 
solved ;  for  the  colonists,  now  rapidly  increasing,  de- 
manded "a  new  parliament."  Such  was  the  govern- 
ment which  South  Carolina  instituted  for  herself;  it 
did  not  deem  it  possible  to  conform  more  closely  to 
the  constitutions.  But  the  proprietaries  indulged  the 
vision  of  realizing  their  introduction.  John  Locke, 
with  Sir  John  Yeamans  and  James  Carteret,  was 

1671.  created   a   landgrave;    and  the  revised  copy  of  the 
Model  was  sent  over,  with  a  set  of  rules  and  instruc- 
tions.    But  Shaftesbury  misjudged  ;  there  was  already 
a  people  in   South  Carolina ;    and  if  the  aristocratic 
council  acknowledged  the  validity  of  the  constitutions, 
they  were  firmly  resisted  by  the  popular  representa- 
tives.     Thus  the  organization  of  the  commonwealth 

i  Wilson's  Carolina.  11 


FOUNDATION   OF   CHARLESTON. 


169 


contained  a  political  feud,  and  led  to  the  party  of  the  CHAP 

.A.  llli 

proprietaries   and  the  party  of  the  people ;    religious  "-"^ 
divisions  combining  with  political  feuds,  the  friends 
of  the  High  Church,  always  a  minority,  favored  the 
former,  while  all  classes  of  dissenters  united  with  the 
latter. 

Every  early  settlement  is  necessarily  attended  with 
great  privations ;  the  planting  of  Carolina  did  not 
encounter  unusual  hardships.  The  enterprising  mind 
of  Shaftesbury  applied  itself  with  zeal  wherever  he 
was  interested  ;  and,  though  the  colony  was  at  one 
moment  so  disheartened  as  to  meditate  desertion,  the 
timely  arrival  of  supplies  scattered  the  clouds  of  de-  1671 
spondency.1  The  Indians,  though  few,  were  un- 
friendly; and  it  was  with  arms  at  hand  that  the 
emigrants  gathered  oysters,  or  swept  the  rivers,  or 
toiled  at  building.  The  labors  of  agriculture  in  the 
sultry  clime  were  appalling  to  Englishmen ;  neither 
did  the  culture  of  European  grains  promise  to  be  suc- 
cessful ;  but  extreme  distress  did  not  ensue  ;  and  the 
proprietaries  showed  no  intention  of  abandoning  their 
plantation. 

The  first  site  for  a  town  had  been  chosen  without 
regard  to  commerce.      The  point  between  the   two 
rivers,  to  which  the  names  of  Shaftesbury2  were  given, 
soon    attracted    attention  ;    those  who  had  purchased 
grants  there,  desirous  of  obtaining  neighbors,  willingly 
offered  to  surrender  one  half  of  their  land  as  "commons  1672^ 
of  pasture."     The  offer  was  in  part  refused  ;    but  the 
neck  of  land  then  called  Oyster  Point,  soon  to  become  1680 
a  village  named  from   the  reigning  king,  and,   after 
more    than   a   century,    incorporated   as   the    city    of  1783 

i  Hewat,  i.  5&  na,  by  T.  A.,  1682,  p.  37.  «  Shaftes- 

*  Wilson's  Carolina,  7.    Caroli-    bury  a  great  patron  to  Carolina." 

VOL.  ii.  22 


170  FOUNDATION   Ol    CHARLESTON. 

CHAP.  Charleston,  immediately  gaii  ed  a  few  inhabitants  ;  and 

JKXU* 

^*— '  on  the  spot  where  opulence  now  crowds  the  wharves  ot 

1672>  the  most  prosperous  mart  on  our  southern  seaboard, 
among  ancient  groves  that  swept  down  to  the  rivers' 
banks,  and  were  covered  with  the  yellow  jasmine, 
which  burdened  the  vernal  zephyrs  with  its  per- 
fumes, the  cabins  of  graziers  began  the  city.  Long 
afterwards,  the  splendid  vegetation  which  environs 
Charleston,  especially  the  pine,  and  cedar,  and  cypress 
trees  along  the  broad  road  which  is  now  Meeting  street, 
delighted  the  observer  by  its  perpetual  verdure.1  The 
settlement,  though  for  some  years  it  struggled  against 
an  unhealthy  climate,2  steadily  increased ;  and  to  its 
influence  is  in  some  degree  to  be  attributed  the  love  ot 
letters,  and  that  desire  of  institutions  for  education,  for 
which  South  Carolina  was  afterwards  distinguished. 

The  institutions  of  Carolina  were  still  further  modi- 
fied by  the  character  of  the  emigration  that  began  to 
throng  to  her  soil. 

1671.  The  proprietaries  continued  to  send  emigrants,  who 
were  tempted  by  the  offer  of  land 3  at  an  easy  quitrent. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  acres  were  granted  for  "every 
able  man-servant,  negroes  as  well  as  Christians." 

1671.  From  Barbadoes  arrived  Sir  John  Yeamans,  with 
African  slaves.4  Thus  the  institution  of  negro  slavery 
is  coeval  with  the  first  plantations  on  Ashley  River. 
Of  the  original  thirteen  states,  South  Carolina  alone 
was  from  its  cradle  essentially  a  planting  state  with 
slave  labor.  In  Maryland,  in  Virginia,  the  custom  of 
employing  indented  servants  long  prevailed ;  and  the 
class  of  white  laborers  was  always  numerous ;  for  no 

i  Dalcho,  15—20.    Archdale.  3  Chalmers,  529.    Dalcho,  19. 

a  Ramsay,   ii.    70.      Chalmers,        *  Dalcho,  13.    Hewat,  i.  53 
541. 


ORIGIN   OF  NEGRO   SLAVER*    IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA.  171 

where  in  the  United  States  is  the  climate  more  favor-  CHAP. 

XIII 

able  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  laborer  than  in  Virginia.  It  ^^- 
was  from  the  first  observed  that  the  climate  of  South 
Carolina  was  more  congenial  to  the  African  than  that 
"  of  the  more  northern  colonies ; " 1  and  at  once  it 
became  the  great  object  of  the  emigrant  "  to  buy 
negro  slaves,  without  which,"  adds  Wilson,  "  a  planter 
can  never  do  any  great  matter." 2  Every  one  of  the 
colonies  received  slaves  from  Africa  within  its  borders  ; 
the  Dutch  merchants,  who  engaged  in  planting  New 
York,  were  largely  interested  in  the  slave  trade,  and 
covenanted  to  furnish  emigrants  to  that  colony  with 
all  the  negroes  they  might  desire ;  but  the  stern 
severity  of  the  climate  in  some  measure  defeated  the 
purpose.  In  South  Carolina,  the  labor  of  felling  the 
forests,  of  tilling  the  soil,  was  avoided  by  the  white 
man ;  climate  favored  the  purposes  of  commercial  ava- 
rice ;  and  the  negro  race  was  multiplied  so  rapidly  by 
importations,  that  in  a  few  years,  we  are  told,  the 
blacks  were  to  the  whites  in  the  proportion  of  twenty- 
two  to  twelve ; 3  a  proportion  that  had  no  parallel 
north  of  the  West  Indies. 

The  changes  that  were  taking  place  on  the  banks  1675 
of  the  Hudson,  had  excited  discontent ;  the  rumor  of 
wealth  to  be  derived  from  the  fertility  of  the  south, 
cherished  the  desire  of  emigration;  and  almost  within 
a  year  from  the  arrival  of  the  first  fleet  in  Ashley  River, 
two  ships  came  with  Dutch  emigrants  from  New 
York,  and  were  subsequently  followed  by  others  of 
their  countrymen  from  Holland.4 


1  Wilson's  Carolina,  15.  *  Hewat,  i.  73.    More   definite, 

2  Ibid.  17.  Dalcho,  p.  12.     Ramsay,  i.  4,  errs 

3  Letter  from  South  Carolina,  by  in  his  date.    The   voyage  was  in 
a  Swiss  gentleman,  p.  40.  1671,  not  in  1674 


172      CHARACTER  OF  EMIGRATION  TO  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAP       Imagination  already  regarded  Carolina  as  the  chosen 

-V  I  i  I  . 

- — •"  spot  for  the  culture  of  the  olive ;  and,  in  tbe  region 
where  flowers  bloom  every  month  in  the  year,  forests 
of  orange-trees  were  to  supplant  the  groves  of  cedar  ; 
silkworms  to  be  fed  from  plantations  of  mulberries ; 
and  choicest  wines  to  be  ripened  under  the  genial 
influences  of  a  nearly  tropical  sun.  For  this  end 
Charles  II.,  with  an  almost  solitary  instance  of  munifi- 
cence towards  a  colony,  provided  at  his  own  expense 
two  small  vessels,  to  transport  to  Carolina  a  few 
foreign  Protestants,  who  might  there  domesticate  the 
productions  of  the  south  of  Europe.1 

1670.      From  England,  also,  emigrations  were  considerable. 

1688.  The  character  of  the  proprietaries  was  a  sufficient  invi- 
tation to  the  impoverished  Cavalier ;  and  the  unfortu- 
nate of  the  church  of  England  could  look  to  the  shores 
of  Carolina  as  the  refuge  where  they  were  assured  of 
favor*  Even  Shaftesbury,  when  he  was  committed  to 
the  Tower,  desired  leave  to  expatriate  himself,  and 
become  an  inhabitant  of  Carolina.2 

Nor  did  churchmen  alone  emigrate.  The  condi- 
tion of  dissenters  in  England  was  no  longer  a  state  of 
security  or  liberty ;  and  the  promise  of  equal  immuni- 
ties tempted  many  of  them  beyond  the  Atlantic,  to 
colonies  where  their  worship  was  tolerated,  and  their 
civil  rights  asserted.  Of  these,  many  were  attracted 
to  the  glowing  clime  of  Carolina,  carrying  with  them 
intelligence,  industry,  and  sobriety.  A  contemporary 

1683.  historian  commemorates  with  singular  praise  the  com- 
pany of  dissenters  from  Somersetshire,  who  were  con- 
ducted to  Charlestown  by  Joseph  Blake,  brother  to 
the  gallant  admiral,  so  celebrated  for  naval  genius  and 

1  Chalmers,  541.     Ramsay,  iL  5.        2  Lingard's  England,  xiii  c.  vii 
Carolina,  by  T.  A.  p.  8,  9. 


CHARACTER  OF  EMIGRATION  TO  SOUTH  CAROLINA.      173 

ove  of  country.     Blake  was  already  advanced  in  life  ;  CHAP 
but  he  could  not  endure  the  present  miseries  of  oppres-  ~~*^~ 
sion,  and   feared  still  greater  evils  from  a  popish  suc- 
cessor ; 1  and  he  devoted  to  the  advancement  of  emigra- 
tion all  the  fortune  which  he  had  inherited  as  the  fruits 
of  his  brother's  victories.     Thus  the  plunder  of  the 
wealth  of  New  Spain  assisted  to  people  Carolina. 

A  colony  of  Irish,  under  Ferguson,  were  lured  by  the 
fame  of  the  fertility  of  the  south,  and  were  received 
with  so  hearty  a  welcome,  that  they  were  soon  merged 
among  the  other  colonists.2 

The  condition  of  Scotland,  also,  compelled  its  in- 
habitants to  seek  peace  by  abandoning  their  native 
country.  Just  "after  the  death  of  Shaftesbury,  a  1683 
scheme,  which  had  been  concerted  during  the  tyranny 
of  Lauderdale,  was  revived.  Thirty-six  noblemen  and 
gentlemen  had  entered  into  an  association  for  planting 
a  colony  in  the  New  World ;  their  agents  had  con- 
tracted with  the  patentees  of  South  Carolina  for  a 
large  district  of  land,  where  Scottish  exiles  for  religion 
might  enjoy  freedom  of  faith  and  a  government  of  their 
own.3  Yet  the  design  was  never  completely  executed. 
A  gleam  of  hope  of  a  successful  revolution  in  England, 
led  to  a  conspiracy  for  the  elevation  of  Monmouth. 
The  conspiracy  was  matured  in  London,  under  pre- 
tence of  favoring  emigration  to  America  ;  and  its  ill 
success  involved  its  authors  in  danger,  and  brought 
Russell  and  Sydney  to  the  scaffold.  It  was,  therefore, 
with  but  a  small  colony,  that  the  Presbyterian  Lord 
Cardross,  many  of  whose  friends  had  suffered  impris  1084 
eminent,  the  rack,  and  death  itself,  and  who  had  him- 


i  Oldmixon,  i.  337,  338,  and  341.        2  Chalmers,  543. 
Oldmixon  is  here  good  authority.        3  Wodrow,  ii.  230.     Laing,  iv 
Comp.  Hewat,  L  89.  133. 


174  HUGUENOTS   EMIGRATE  TO  SOUTH  CAROLINA 

CHAP,  self  been   persecuted  under  Lauderdale,1  set  sail  for 
<^~  Carolina.     But  even  there  the  ten  families  of  outcasts 
1684.  found  no  peace.     They    planted  themselves  at  Port 
Royal ; 2  the  colony  of  Ashley  River  claimed  over  them 
a  jurisdiction  which  was  reluctantly  conceded.      Car- 
dross  returned    to    Europe,  to  render  service  in  the 
approaching  revolution ;    and    the    Spaniards,    taking 
umbrage  at  a  plantation  established  on  ground  which 
they    claimed    as   a  dependency   of    St.    Augustine, 
1686.  invaded  the  frontier  settlement,  and  laid  it  entirely 
waste.     Of  the  unhappy  emigrants,  some  returned  to 
Scotland  ;  some  mingled  with  the  earlier  planters  of 
Carolina.3 

More  than  a  hundred  years  had  elapsed  since  Co- 
ligny,  with  the  sanction  of  the  French  monarch,  had 
selected  the  southern  regions  of  the  United  States  as 
the  residence  of  Huguenots.  The  realization  of  that 
design,  in  defiance  of  the  Bourbons,  is  the  most  re- 
markable incident  in  the  early  history  of  South  Caro- 
lina, and  was  the  result  of  a  persecution,  which  not 
only  gave  a  great  addition  to  the  intelligence  and 
moral  worth  of  the  American  colonies,  but,  for  Europe, 
hastened  the  revolution  in  the  institutions  of  the  age. 

John  Calvin,  by  birth  a  Frenchman,  was  to  France 
the  apostle  of  the  reformation ;  but  his  faith  had  ever 
been  feared  as  the  creed  of  republicanism  ;  his  party 
had  been  pursued  as  the  sect  of  rebellion  ;  and  it 
was  only  by  force  of  arms,  that  the  Huguenots  had 
obtained  a  conditional  toleration.  Even  the  edict  of 
Nantz  placed  their  security,  not  on  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  permanent  principle  of  legislative  justice, 


1  Laing,  iv.  72.  Chalmers,  547,  548.      Ramsay 

2  Ramsay  says,  in  1682.  127.    Laing,  iv.  187 

3  Archclale,  14.     Hewat,  i.  89. 


HUGUENOTS  EMIGRATE  TO  SOUTH  CAROLINA        175 

but  on  a  compromise  between  contending  parties.     It  UHAP. 
was  but  a  confirmation  of  privileges  which  had  been  —- v^~ 
extorted  from  the   predecessors  of  Henry   IV.     And 
yet  it  was  the  harbinger  of  religious  peace ;  so  long  as 
the  edict  of  Nantz  was  honestly  respected,  the  Hu- 
guenots of  Langtiedoc  were  as  tranquil  as  the  Luther- 
ans of  Alsace.    But  their  tranquillity  invited  from  their 
enemies  a  renewal  of  attacks  ;  no  longer  a  powerful 
faction,  they  were  oppressed  with  rigor;  having  ceased 
to  be  feared,  they  were  exposed  to  persecution. 

When  Louis  XIV.  approached  the  borders  of  age, 
he  was  troubled  by  remorse  ;  the  weakness  of  super- 
stition succeeded  to  the  weakness  of  indulgence  ;  and 
the  flatteries  of  bigots,  artfully  employed  for  their  own 
selfish  purposes,  led  the  vanity  of  the  monarch  to  seek, 
in  making  proselytes  to  the  church,  a  new  method 
of  gaining  glory,  and  an  atonement  for  the  voluptuous 
profligacy  of  his  life.  Louis  was  not  naturally  cruel, 
but  was  an  easy  dupe  of  those  in  whom  he  most 
confided — of  priests,  and  of  a  woman.  The  daughter 
of  an  adventurer, — for  nearly  ten  years  of  childhood 
a  resident  in  the  West  Indies,  educated  a  Calvinist, 
but  early  converted  to  the  Roman  faith, — Madame  de 
Maintenon,  had,  in  the  house  of  a  burlesque  poet, 
learned  the  art  of  conversation,  and,  in  the  intimate 
society  of  Ninon  de  1'Enclos,  had  studied  the  myste- 
ries of  the  passions.  Of  a  clear  and  penetrating  mind, 
of  a  calculating  judgment,  which  her  calm  imagination 
could  not  lead  astray,  she  never  forgot  her  self-posses- 
sion in  a  generous  transport,  and  was  never  mastered 
even  by  the  passions  which  she  sought  to  gratify. 
Already  advanced  in  life  when  she  began  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  king,  whose  character  she  pro- 
foundly understood,  she  sought  to  inthrall  his  mind  by 


176  HUGUENOTS   EMIGRATE  TO  SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  the  influences  of  religion  ;  and,  becoming  herself  devout 

or  feigning  to  be  so,  always  modest  and  discreet,  she 

knew  how  to  awaken  in  him  compunctions  which  she 
alone  could  tranquillize,  and  subjected  his  mind  to  her 
sway  by  substituting  the  sentiment  of  devotion  for  the 
passion  of  love.  The  conversion  of  the  Huguenots 
was  to  excuse  the  sins  of  his  earlier  years.  They,  like 
herself,  were  to  become  reconciled  to  the  church ;  yet 
not  by  methods  of  violence.  Creeds  were  to  melt 
away  in  the  sunshine  of  favor,  and  proselytes  to  be 
won  by  appeals  to  interest. 

Huguenots  were,  therefore,  to  be  employed  no 
longer  in  public  office ;  they  were,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, excluded  from  the  guilds  of  tradesmen  and 
mechanics ;  and  a  Calvinist  might  not  marry  a 
Roman  Catholic  wife.  Direct  bribery  was  also 
employed ;  converts  were  purchased ;  and,  as  it 
seemed  not  unreasonable  that,  where  money  is  paid, 
a  bargain  should  be  fulfilled,  severe  laws  punished  a 
relapse. 

The  multitude  may  always  defend  itself  against 
the  pride  of  any  one,  by  claiming  for  itself  a  collective 
wisdom  superior  to  that  of  the  wisest  individual.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  moral  qualities  ;  there  exists  in  the 
many  a  force  of  will  which  no  violence  can  break,  a 
firmness  of  conviction  which  no  bribery  can  undermine. 
The  first  methods  of  conversion  were  fruitless.  Strange 
human  nature !  In  men  who  had  taken  a  bribe  for 
conversion,  there  often  remained  a  principle  strong 
enough  to  sustain  them  in  returning  to  their  first  opin- 
ions, and  in  suffering  for  them. 

Proselytism  next  invaded  the  most  sacred  rights  of 
human  nature,  and  children  of  seven  years  old  were 
invited  to  abjure  the  faith  of  their  fathers.  The  Hu- 


HUGUENOTS   EMIGRATE  TO   SOUTH   CAROLINA  177 

guenots  began  to  emigrate ;    for   their  industry  and  CHAP 
skill  made  them  welcome  in  every  Protestant  country ;  — • ^ 
and  Louis,  desiring  to  convert,  not  to  expel,  his  sub- 
jects, forbade  emigration,  under  penalty  of  the  galleys. 
The  ministers  of  the  Calvinists  were  now  tormented ; 
their  chapels  were  arbitrarily  razed ;  their  funds  for 
charitable  purposes  confiscated  ;  their  schools  shut  up ; 
their  civil  officers  disfranchised.     Did  cruel  oppression 
produce  disobedience  ?     The  rack  and  the  wheel  gave 
to  Huguenots  their  martyrs. 

At  court,  the  triumph  of  the  widow  of  Scarron,  aided 
by  the  confessors,  seemed  complete ;  but  Louvois, 
the  ambitious  minister  of  war,  could  not  brook  this  su- 
perior influence  ;  and,  since  the  conversion  of  Hugue- 
nots was  the  path  to  the  monarch's  favor,  he  resolved 
to  enlist  the  military  resources  of  France  in  the  service, 
and  to  "  dragoon  "  the  Calvinists  into  a  reverence  for 
the  church.  Instead  of  missionaries,  soldiers  were  1684 
now  sent  into  Calvinistic  districts,  to  be  quartered  in 
Protestant  families,  and  to  torment  them  into  conver- 
sion. Meantime,  emigration  was  a  felony,  and  the 
frontiers  were  carefully  guarded  to  prevent  it.  The 
hounds  were  let  loose  on  game  shut  up  in  a  close 
park.  Here  was  an  invention  which  multiplied 
tyraimy  indefinitely,  and  lodged  its  lustful  and  fero- 
cious passions  under  every  roof,  within  the  secret  re 
cesses  of  every  family. 

At  length,  the  edict  of  Nantz  was  formally  revoked.  1685 
Calvinists  might  no  longer  preach  in  churches  or  in 
the  ruins  of  churches ;  all  public  worship  was  for- 
bidden them ;  and  the  chancellor  Le  Tellier  could 
shout  aloud,  "  Now,  Lord,  lettest  thou  thy  servant 
depart  in  peace ; "  even  the  eloquent  Bossuet,  in  false 
VOL.  ii.  23 


178  HUGUENOTS  EMIGRATE  TO  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  rhetoric   that  reflects   disgrace   on  his  understanding 

-~~-  and  heart,1  could  declare  the  total  overthrow  of  heresy ; 

while  Louis  XIV.   believed  his  glory  perfected  by  an 

absolute   union   of   all   dissenters  with    the    Roman 

church. 

But  the  extremity  of  danger  inspired  even  the  wa- 
vering with  courage.  What  though  they  were  exposed, 
without  defence,  to  the  fury  of  an  unbridled  soldiery, 
whom  hatred  of  heretics  had  steeled  against  human- 
ity? Property  was  exposed  to  plunder;  religious  books 
were  burned ;  children  torn  from  their  parents ;  faith- 
ful ministers,  who  would  not  abandon  their  flocks, 
broken  on  the  wheel.  Men  were  dragged  to  the 
altars,  to  be  tortured  into  a  denial  of  the  faith  of  their 
fathers ;  and  a  relapse  was  punished  with  extreme 
rigor.  The  approach  of  death  removes  the  fear  of  per- 
secution ;  bigotry  invented  a  new  terror ;  the  bodies 
of  those  who  died  rejecting  the  sacraments,  were 
thrown  out  to  wolves  and  dogs.  The  mean-spirited, 
who  changed  their  religion,  were  endowed  by  law  with 
the  entire  property  of  their  family.  The  dying  father 
was  made  to  choose  between  wronging  his  conscience 
by  apostasy  and  beggaring  his  offspring  by  fidelity. 
All  children  were  ordered  to  be  taken  away  from  Prot- 
estant parents;  but  that  law  it  was  impossible  to 
enforce ;  nature  will  assert  her  rights.  It  became  a 
study  to  invent  torments,  dolorous,  but  not  mortal ;  to 
inflict  all  the  pain  the  human  body  could  endure,  and 
not  die.  What  need  of  recounting  the  horrid  enormi- 
ties committed  by  troops  whose  commanders  had  been 
ordered  "  to  use  the  utmost  rigor  towards  those  who 
will  not  adopt  the  creed  of  the  king  ?  to  push  to  an 

putems,  &c-    Onunn  Fan.  de  Le  Teffier.    The  iron- 


HUGUENOTS  EMIGRATE  TO  SOUTH  CAKOLDIA.  179 

extremity  the  vain-glorious  fools  who  delay  their  con-  CHAP. 
version  to  the  last?"  What  need  of  describing  the  ^-^ 
stripes,  the  roastings  by  slow  fires,  the  plunging  into 
wells,  the  gashes  from  knives,  the  wounds  from  red-hot 
pincers,  and  all  the  cruelties  employed  by  men  who 
were  only  forbidden  not  to  ravish  nor  to  kill  ?  The 
loss  of  lives  cannot  be  computed.  How  many  thou- 
sands of  men,  how  many  thousands  of  children  and 
women,  perished  in  the  attempt  to  escape,  who  can 
tell  ?  An  historian  has  averted  that  ten  thousand  per- 
ished at  the  stake,  or  on  the  gibbet  and  the  wheel.1 

But  the  efforts  of  tyranny  were  powerless.  Truth 
enjoys  serenely  her  own  immortality;  and  opinion, 
which  always  yields  to  a  clearer  conviction,  laughs  vio- 
lence to  scorn.  The  unparalleled  persecution  of  vast 
masses  of  men  for  their  religious  creed,  occasioned  but 
a  new  display  of  the  power  of  humanity ;  the  Calvin- 
ists  preserved  their  faith  over  the  ashes  of  their 
churches,  and  the  bodies  of  their  murdered  ministers. 
The  power  of  a  brutal  soldiery  was  defied  by  whole 
companies  of  faithful  men,  that  still  assembled  to  sing 
their  psalms ;  and  from  the  country  and  the  city,  from 
the  comfortable  homes  of  wealthy  merchants,  from 
the  abodes  of  a  humbler  peasantry,  from  the  work- 
shops of  artisans,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  rose 
up,  as  with  one  heart,  to  bear  testimony  to  the  indefea- 
sible, irresistible  right  to  freedom  of  mind. 

Every  wise  government  was  eager  to  oner  a  refuge 
to  the  upright  men  who  would  carry  to  other  coun- 
tries the  arts,  the  skill  in  manufactures,  and  the  wealth 
of  France.  Emigrant  Huguenots  put  a  new  aspect  on 
the  north  of  Germany,  where  they  constituted  towns 
and  sections  of  cities,  introducing  manufactures  before 

i  Rnlhitoe,  OBmta,  T.  22L 


180       HUGUENOTS  EMIGRATE  TO  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  unknown.  A  suburb  of  London  was  filled  with 
— ~  French  mechanics ;  the  prince  of  Orange  gained 
entire  regiments  of  soldiers,  as  brave  as  those  whom 
Cromwell  led  to  victory;  a  colony  of  them  reached 
even  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  In  our  American 
colonies  they  were  welcome  every  where.  The  re- 
ligious sympathies  of  New  England  were  awakened  ; 
did  any  arrive  in  poverty,  having  barely  escaped 
with  life  ? — the  towns  of  Massachusetts  contributed 
liberally  to  their  support,  and  provided  them  with 
lands.  Others  repaired  to  New  York ;  but  the 
warmer  climate  was  more  inviting  to  the  exiles  of 
Languedoc,  and  South  Carolina  became  the  chief 
report  of  the  Huguenots.  What  though  the  attempt 
to  emigrate  was  by  the  law  of  France  a  felony  ?  In 
spite  of  every  precaution  of  the  police,  five  hundred 
thousand  souls  escaped  from  their  country.  The  un- 
fortunate were  more  wakeful  to  fly  than  the  ministers 
of  tyranny  to  restrain. 

1685  "We  quitted  home  by  night,  leaving  the  soldiers  in 
their  beds,  and  abandoning  the  house  with  its  furni- 
ture," said  Judith,  the  young  wife  of  Pierre  Manigault 
"  We  contrived  to  hide  ourselves  for  ten  days  at  Romans, 
in  Dauphiny,  while  a  search  was  made  for  us ;  but 
our  faithful  hostess  would  not  betray  us." — Nor  could 
they  escape  to  the  seaboard,  except  by  a  circuitous 
iourney  through  Germany  and  Holland,  and  thence  to 
England,  in  the  depths  of  winter.  "  Having  embarked 
tt  London,  we  were  sadly  off.  The  spotted  fever  ap- 
peared on  board  the  vessel,  and  many  died  of  the 
disease  ;  among  these,  our  aged  mother.  We  touched 
at  Bermuda,  where  the  vessel  was  seized.  Our  monev 
was  all  spent ;  with  great  difficulty  we  procured  a  pas- 
sage in  another  vessel.  After  our  arrival  in  Carolina 


HUGUEiNOrS   EMIGRATE   TO   SOUTH   CAROLINA.  181 

ive  suffered  every  kind  of  evil.  In  eighteen  months,  CHAP 
our  eldest  brother,  unaccustomed  to  the  hard  labor  - — —> 
which  we  were  obliged  to  undergo,  died  of  a  fever. 
Since  leaving  France,  we  had  experienced  every  kind 
of  affliction — disease,  pestilence,  famine,  poverty,  hard 
labor.  I  have  been  for  six  months,  without  tasting 
bread,  working  the  ground  like  a  slave  ;  and  1  have 
passed  three  or  four  years  without  having  it  when  I 
wanted  it.  And  yet,"  adds  the  excellent  woman,  in 
the  spirit  of  grateful  resignation,  "  God  has  done  great 
things  for  us,  in  enabling  us  to  bear  up  under  so 
many  trials." 

This  family  was  but  one  of  many  that  found  a  shel- 
ter in  Carolina,  the  genera]  asylum  of  the  Calvinist 
refugees.  Escaping  from  a  land  where  the  profession 
of  their  religion  was  a  felony,  where  their  estates  were 
liable  to  be  confiscated  in  favor  of  the  apostate,  where 
the  preaching  of  their  faith  was  a  crime  to  be  expiated 
on  the  wheel,  where  their  children  might  be  torn  from 
them,  to  be  subjected  to  the  nearest  Catholic  relation, 
— the  fugitives  from  Languedoc  on  the  Mediterranean, 
from  Rochelle,  and  Saintange,  and  Bordeaux,  the 
provinces  on  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  from  St.  Quentin, 
Poictiers,  and  the  beautiful  valley  of  Tours,  from  St. 
Lo  and  Dieppe,  men  who  had  the  virtues  of  the  Eng- 
lish Puritans,  without  their  bigotry,  came  to  the  land 
to  which  the  tolerant  benevolence  of  Shaftesbury  had 
invited  the  believer  of  every  creed.  From  a  land 
had  suffered  its  king,  in  wanton  bigotry,  to  drive  hal 
a  million  of  its  best  citizens  into  exile,  they  came  to 
the  land  which  was  the  hospitable  refuge  of  the 
oppressed  ;  where  superstition  and  fanaticism,  infideli- 
ty and  faith,  cold  speculation  and  animated  zeal,  were 
alike  admitted  without  question,  and  where  the  fires  of 


1 82  HUGUENOT  EMIGRANTS  ON  THE  SANTEE. 

CHAP  religious  persecution  were  never  to  be  kindled.  There 
— •+*  they  obtained  an  assignment  of  lands,  and  soon  had 
tenements ;  there  they  might  safely  make  tho  woods 
the  scene  of  their  devotions,  and  join  the  simple 
incense  of  their  psalms  to  the  melodies  of  the  winds 
among  the  ancient  groves.  Their  church  was  in 
Charleston ;  and  thither,  on  every  Lord's  day,  gather 
ing  from  their  plantations  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Cooper,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
the  tide,  they  might  all  regularly  be  seen,  the  parents 
with  their  children,  whom  no  bigot  could  now  wrest 
from  them,  making  their  way  in  light  skiffs,  through 
scenes  so  tranquil,  that  silence  was  broken  only  by 
the  rippling  of  oars,  and  the  hum  of  the  flourishing 
village  at  the  confluence  of  the  rivers. 

Other  Huguenot  emigrants  established  themselves 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Santee,  in  a  region  which 
has  since  been  celebrated  for  affluence  and  refined 
hospitality. 

The  United  States  are  full  of  monuments  of  the 
emigrations  from  France.  When  the  struggle  for 
independence  arrived,  the  son  of  Judith  Manigault 
intrusted  the  vast  fortune  he  had  acquired  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  country  that  had  adopted  his  mother ;  the 
hall  in  Boston,  where  the  eloquence  of  New  England 
rocked  the  infant  spirit  of  independence,  was  the  gift 
of  the  son  of  a  Huguenot ;  when  the  treaty  of  Paris 
for  the  independence  of  our  country  was  framing,  the 
grandson  of  a  Huguenot,  acquainted  from  childhood 
with  the  wrongs  of  his  ancestors,  would  not  allow  his 
jealousies  of  France  to  be  lulled,  and  exerted  a  power- 
ful influence  in  stretching  the  boundary  of  the  states 
to  the  Mississippi.  On  our  north-eastern  frontier  state, 


CONTEST   FOR   POPULAR    POWER    IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA.          183 

the  name  of  the  oldest  college  bears  witness  to  the  CHAP 

XIII. 

wise    liberality   of  a   descendant   of  the    Huguenots.  ^^^- 
The  children  of  the  Calvinists  of  France  have  reason 
to  respect  the  memory  of  their  ancestors.1 

It  has  been  usual  to  relate,  that  religious  bigotry 
denied  to  the  Huguenot  emigrants  immediate  deni- 
zation.  If  full  hospitality  was  for  a  season  withheld, 
the  delay  grew  out  of  a  controversy  in  which  all  Caro- 
linians had  a  common  interest,  and  the  privileges  of 
citizenship  were  conceded  so  soon  as  it  could  be  done  1^94 
by  Carolinians  themselves.  It  had  not  yet  been  de-  1697 
termined  with  whom  the  power  of  naturalizing  for- 
eigners resided,  nor  how  Carolina  should  be  governed. 
The  great  mass  of  the  people  were  intent  on  framing 
their  own  institutions ;  and  collisions  with  the  lords 
proprietors  long  kept  the  government  in  confusion. 

For  the  proprietary  power  was  essentially  weak. 
The  company  of  courtiers,  which  became  no  more  than 
a  partnership  of  speculators  in  colonial  lands,  had  not 
sufficient  force  to  resist  foreign  violence  or  assert 
domestic  authority.  It  could  derive  no  strength  but 
from  the  colonists  themselves,  or  from  the  crown.  But 
the  colonists  connected  self-protection  with  the  right 
of  self-government,  and  the  crown  would  not  incur 
expense,  except  on  a  surrender  of  the  jurisdiction. 
Thus  the  proprietary  government,  having  its  organ  in 
the  council,  could  prolong  its  existence  only  by  con- 
cessions, and  was  destined  by  its  inherent  weakness  to 

1  Rulhiere,  Eclaircissements  sur  Tableau,  &c.  torn.  iv.  c.  xxiii.    For 

les    Causes   de   la    Revocation  de  America,     Ramsay's     Carolina,    i. 

I'Edit  de  Nantes,  in  the  5th  vol.  of  5-8.      Dan.  Ravenel,   in  (Charles- 

his  works  ;    an  important  work  on  ton)  City  Gazette,  for  May  12  and 

this   subject     Voltaire,    Siecle   de  15,  1826.     Holmes,  in  Mass.  Hist 

Louis  XIV.  c.  xxxvi.  Ancillon,  (him-  Coll.  xxii.  1-83 
self  a  descendant  of  Huguenots/ 


184         CONTEST  FOR    POPULAR    POWER   IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAP,  be  overthrown  by  the  popular  party  which  was  favored 
~~-X,  by  the  commons. 

1670.  At  first  the  proprietaries  acquiesced  in  a  government 
which  had  little  reference  to  the  constitutions.     The 
first  governor  had    sunk   under   the  climate   and   the 
hardships  of  founding  a  colony.     His    successor,   Sir 

1671.  John  Yeamans,  was  a  sordid  calculator,  bent  on  acquir- 
ing a  fortune.     He  encouraged  his  employers  in  ex- 
pense, and  enriched  himself,  without  gaining  respect 
or  hatred.     "  It  must  be  a  bad  soil,"  said  his  weary 

1674.  employers,  "that  will  not  maintain  industrious  men, 
or  we  must  be  very  silly  that  would  maintain  the  idle." 
If  they  continued  their  outlays,  it  was  in  hopes  of 
seeing  vineyards,  and  olive-groves,  and  plantations, 
established  ;  they  refused  supplies  of  cattle,  and  de- 
sired returns  in  compensation  for  their  expenditures. 
1674  The  moderation  and  good  sense  of  West  were  able 
16*83  to  Preserve  tranquillity  for  about  nine  years;  but  the 
lords,  who  had  first  purchased  his  services  by  the  grant 
of  all  their  merchandise  and  debts  in  Carolina,  in  the 
end  dismissed  him  from  office,  on  the  charge  that  he 
favored  the  popular  party. 

The  continued  struggles  with  the  proprietaries  has- 
tened the  emancipation  of  the  people  from  their  rule ; 
but  the  praise  of  having  been  always  in  the  right 
cannot  be  awarded  to  the  colonists.  The  latter 
claimed  the  right  of  weakening  the  neighboring 
Indian  tribes  by  a  partisan  warfare,  and  a  sale  of  the 
captives  into  West  Indian  bondage ;  their  antagonists 
demanded  that  the  treaty  of  peace  with  the  natives 
should  be  preserved.1  Again,  the  proprietaries  offered 
some  favorable  modifications  of  the  constitutions;  llie 
colonists  respected  the  modifications  no  more  than  the 

i  Archdale,  13,  14.    Hewat,  i.  7a    Chalmers,  542,  543. 


CONTEST  FOR   POPULAR   POWER    IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA.          185 

original  laws.  A  rapid  change  of  governors  aug-  CHAP 
men  ted  the  confusion.  There  was  no  harmony  of  ^v^L 
interests  between  the  lords  paramount  and  their 
tenants,  or  of  authority  between  the  executive  and 
the  popular  assembly.  As  in  all  other  colonies  south 
of  the  Potomac,  colonial  legislation  did  not  favor  the 
collection  of  debts  that  had  been  contracted  abroad ; 
the  proprietaries  demanded  a  rigid  conformity  to  the 
cruel  and  intolerant  method  of  the  English  courts.  It 
had  been  usual  to  hold  the  polls  for  elections  at 
Charleston  only ;  as  population  extended,  the  proprie- 
taries ordered  an  apportionment  of  the  representation ; 
but  Carolina  would  not  allow  districts  to  be  carved  out 
and  representation  to  be  apportioned  from  abroad  ;  and 
the  useful  reformation  could  not  be  adopted  till  it  was 
demanded  and  effected  by  the  people  themselves. 

England  had  always  favored  its  merchants  in  the 
invasion  of  the  Spanish  commercial  monopoly ;  had 
sometimes  protected  pirates;  and  Charles  II.  had 
conferred  the  honors  of  knighthood  on  a  freebooter. 
The  treaty  of  1667  changed  the  relations  of  the  pirate 
and  the  contraband  trader.  But  men's  habits  do  not 
change  so  easily ;  and  in  Carolina,  especially  after 
Portroyal  Had  been  laid  waste  by  the  Spaniards,  there 
were  not  wanting  those  who  regarded  the  buccaneers 
as  their  natural  allies  against  a  common  enemy;1  and 
thus  opened  one  more  issue  with  the  proprietaries. 

When  the  commerce  of  South  Carolina  had  so  1685 
increased  that  a  collector  of  plantation-duties  was 
appointed,  a  new  struggle  arose.  The  palatine  court, 
careful  not  to  offend  the  king,  who,  nevertheless,  was 
not  diverted  from  the  design  of  annulling  their  charter 
by  a  process  of  law,  gave  orders  that  the  acts  of 

i  Hewat,  i.  92,  93.    Chalmers,  547,  548. 

VOL.  ii.  24 


186          CONTEST  FOR    POPULAR    POWER  IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA 

CHAP,  navigation   should   be   enforced.     The.  colonists,   who 
•^^  had  made  themselves  independent  of  the  proprietaries 

1685.  jn   fact}  esteemed    themselves  independent  of  parlia- 
ment of  right.     Here,  as  every  where,  the  acts  were 
indignantly  resisted  as   at  war   with   natural  equity . 
here  they  were  also  hated  as  an  infringement  of  the 
conditions  of  the  charter,   of  which  the  validity  was 
their  motive  to  emigrate. 

The  pregnant  cause  of  dissensions  in  Carolina  could 
not  be  removed,  till  the  question  of  powers  should  be 
definitively  settled.  The  proprietaries  were  willing  to 
believe,  that  the  cause  existed  in  the  want  of  dignity 
and  character  in  the  governor.  That  affairs  might  be 
more  firmly  established,  James  Colleton,  a  brother 
of  a  proprietary,  was  appointed  governor,  with  the 
rank  of  landgrave  and  an  endowment  of  forty-eight 
thousand  acres  of  land ;  but  neither  his  relationship, 
nor  his  rank,  nor  his  reputation,  nor  his  office,  nor  his 
acres,  could  procure  for  him  obedience ;  because  the 
actual  relations  between  the  contending  parties  were  in 

1686.  no  respect  changed.     When  Colleton  met  the  colonial 
v*   parliament  which  had  been  elected  before  his  arrival, 

a  majority  refused  to  acknowledge  the  binding  force 
of  the  constitutions  ;  by  a  violent  act  of  power,  Colle- 
ton, like  Cromwell  in  a  similar  instance  in  English 
history,  excluded  the  refractory  members  from  the 
parliament.  What  could  follow  but  a  protest  from  the 
disfranchised  members  against  any  measures  which 
might  be  adopted  by  the  remaining  minority  ? 
1087.  A  new  parliament  was  still  more  intractable;  and 
the  "standing  laws"  which  they  adopted  were  neg- 
atived by  the  palatine  court. 

From  questions  of  political  liberty,  the  strife  be- 
tween the  parties  extended  to  all  their  relations. 


CONTEST  FOR  POPULAR   POWER  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.  187 

When  Colleton  endeavored  to  collect  quit-rents,  not  CHAP 

XIII. 

only   on    cultivated    fields,    but   on    wild    lands   also,  —X 
direct    insubordination    ensued ;    and    the    assembly,  1687 
imprisoning  the  secretary  of  the  province,  and  seizing 
the  records,  defied  the  governor  and  his  patrons,  and 
entered  on  a  career  of  absolute  opposition. 

Colleton  resolved  on  one  last  desperate  effort,  and,  1689 
pretending  danger  from  Indians  or  Spaniards,  called 
out  the  militia,  and  declared  martial  law.  But  who 
were  to  execute  martial  law?  The  militia  were  the 
people,  and  there  were  no  other  troops.  Colleton 
was  in  a  more  hopeless  condition  than  ever ;  for  the 
assembly  believed  itself  more  than  ever  bound  to 
protect  the  country  against  a  military  despotism.  It 
was  evident,  the  people  were  resolved  on  establishing 
a  government  agreeable  to  themselves.  The  English 
revolution  of  1688  was  therefore  imitated  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ashley  and  Cooper.  Soon  after  William  1690 
and  Mary  were  proclaimed,  a  meeting  of  the  represent- 
atives of  South  Carolina  disfranchised  Colleton,  and 
banished  him  from  the  province. 


188 


CHAPTER  XfV. 

THE  COLONIES  ON  THE  CHESAPEAKE  BAT. 

CHAP.       FOR  more  than  eight  years,  "  THE  PEOPLE  OF  VIR- 

-\  I  V. 

— •*--  GINIA  "   had  governed  themselves ;  and  their  govern- 
1652  ment   naci    been    conducted   with   wise    moderation. 

to 

1C 60  Tranquillity  and  a  rapid  increase  of  population  prom 
sed  the  extension  of  its  borders ;  and  colonial  life  was 
sweetened  by  the  enjoyment  of  equal  franchises.  No 
trace  of  established  privilege  appeared  in  its  code  or 
its  government;  in  its  forms  and  in  its  legislation, 
Virginia  was  a  representative  democracy ;  so  jealous 
of  a  landed  aristocracy,  that  it  insisted  on  universality 
of  suffrage ;  so  hostile  to  the  influence  of  commercial 
wealth,  that  it  would  not  tolerate  the  "  mercenary " 
ministers  of  the  law ;  so  considerate  for  religious  free- 
dom, that  each  parish  was  left  to  take  care  of  itself. 
Every  officer  was,  directly  or  indirectly,  chosen  by  the 
people. 

The  power  of  the  people  naturally  grew  out  of  the 
character  of  the  early  settlers,  who  were,  most  of 
them,  adventurers,  bringing  to  the  New  World  no 
wealth  but  enterprise ;  no  rank  but  that  of  manhood  ; 
no  privileges  but  those  of  Englishmen.  The  principle 
of  the  English  law  which  grants  real  estate  to  the 
eldest  born,  was  respected  ;  but  generations  of  Vir- 
ginians had  hardly  as  yet  succeeded  each  other ;  the 
rule  had  produced  no  effect  upon  society,  and,  from  the 


THE   PEOPLE   OF   VIRGINIA.  189 

beginning,  had  been  modified  in  many  counties  by  the  CHAP 
custom  of  gavelkind.1    Virginia  could  not  imitate  those  — •* -~ 

o  o 

great  legislative  reforms  of  the  Long  Parliament,  be- 
cause her  happier  soil  was  free  from  the  burdens  of  forest 
laws  and  military  tenures,  courts  of  wards,  and  star- 
chambers.  The  tendency  towards  a  multiplication  ot 
religious  sects  began  already  to  be  perceptible,  undei 
the  freedom  of  a  popular  government.  In  its  care  for 
a  regular  succession  of  representative  assemblies,  Vir- 
ginia exceeded  the  jealous  friends  of  republican  liber- 
ty in  England ;  there  triennial  parliaments  had  been 
established  by  law ;  the  Virginians,  imitating  the 
terms  of  the  bill,  claimed  the  privilege  of  a  biennial 
election  of  their  legislators.2  In  addition  to  the 
strength  derived  from  the  natural  character  of  the 
emigrants,  from  the  absence  of  feudal  institutions, 
from  the  entire  absence  of  the  excessive  refinements 
of  legal  erudition,  and  from  the  constitution,  legis- 
lation, and  elective  franchises  of  the  colonists,  a  new 
and  undefined  increase  was  gained  by  the  universal 
prevalence  of  the  spirit  of  personal  independence. 
An  instinctive  aversion  to  too  much  government  was 
always  a  trait  of  southern  character,  expressed  in  the 
solitary  manner  of  settling  the  country,  in  the  absence 
of  municipal  governments,  in  the  indisposition  of  the 
scattered  inhabitants  to  engage  in  commerce,  to  collect 
in  towns,  or  to  associate  in  townships  under  corpo- 
rate powers.  As  a  consequence,  there  was  little 
commercial  industry ;  and,  on  the  soil  of  Virginia, 
there  were  no  vast  accumulations  of  commercial 
wealth.  The  exchanges  were  made  almost  entirely — 

1  Jones's  State  of  Virginia,  p.  61.     long   intermission  of  parliament," 

2  Hening,  i.  517.  The  bill  is  mod-     passed  by  the  commons  of  England 
elled  after  the  "  act  for  preventing     in  1640. 

inconveniences    happening  by  the 


190  ARISTOCRACY   IN   VIRGINIA 

CHAP,  and  it  continued  so  for  more  than  a  century — by  fac- 
— ~  tors  of  foreign  merchants.  Thus  the  influence  of 
wealth,  under  the  modern  form  of  stocks  and  accumu- 
lations of  money,  was  always  inconsiderable ;  and 
men  were  so  widely  scattered — like  hermits  among  the 
heathen — that  far  the  smallest  number  were  within 
reach  of  the  direct  influence  of  the  established  church 
or  of  government.  In  Virginia,  except  in  matters 
that  related  to  foreign  commerce,  a  man's  own  will 
went  far  towards  being  his  law. 

Yet  the  germs  of  an  aristocracy  existed ;  and  there 
was  already  a  tendency  towards  obtaining  for  it  the 
sanction  of  colonial  legislation.  Unlike  Massachu- 
setts, Virginia  was  a  continuation  of  English  society. 
The  first  colonists  were  not  fugitives  from  persecution , 
they  came,  rather,  under  the  auspices  of  the  nobility, 
the  church,  and  the  mercantile  interests  of  England; 
they  brought  with  them  an  attachment  to  monarchy ; 
a  deep  reverence  for  the  Anglican  church  ;  a  love  for 
England  and  English  institutions.  Their  minds  had 
never  been  disciplined  into  an  antipathy  to  feudalism  , 
their  creed  had  never  been  shaken  by  the  progress  of 
skepticism  ;  no  new  ideas  of  natural  rights  had  as  yet 
inclined  them  to  "  faction."  The  Anglican  church 
was,  therefore,  without  repugnance,  sanctioned  as  the 
religion  of  the  state  ;  and  a  religion  established  by  law 
always  favors  aristocracy ;  for  it  seeks  support,  not  in 
conviction  only,  but  in  vested  rights.  The  rise  of  the 
plebeian  sects,  which  swarmed  in  England,  was,  for  the 
present  at  least,  prevented,  and  unity  of  worship,  with 
few  exceptions,  continued  for  about  a  century  from  the 
settlement  of  Jamestown.  The  aristocracy  of  Virginia 
was,  from  its  origin, exclusively  a  landed  aristocracy;  its 
germ  lay  in  the  manner  in  which  rights  to  the  soil  had 


ARISTOCRACY   IN   VIRGINIA.  19  J 

oeen  obtained.     For  every  person   whom  a  planter  CHAR 

should,  at  his  own  charge,  transport  into  Virginia,  he  

could  claim  fifty  acres  of  land ;  and  thus  a  body  of 
large  proprietors  had  existed  from  the  infancy  of  the 
settlement.1  These  vast  possessions,  often  an  in- 
heritance for  the  eldest  born,  awakened  the  feelings 
of  family  pride. 

The  power  of  the  rising  aristocracy  was  still  further 
increased  by  the  deplorable  want  of  the  means  of  edu- 
cation in  Virginia.  The  great  mass  of  the  rising 
generation  could  receive  little  literary  culture  ;  the 
higher  degrees  of  cultivated  intelligence  in  the  colony 
were  confined  to  a  small  number  of  favored  emigrants 
Many  of  the  royalists  who  came  over  after  the  death  of 
Charles  I.,  brought  to  the  colony  the  culture  and  edu- 
cation that  belonged  to  the  English  gentry  of  that  day; 
and  the  direction  of  affairs  necessarily  fell  into  their 
hands.  The  instinct  of  liberty  may  create  popular 
institutions ;  they  cannot  be  preserved  in  their  integri- 
ty except  by  the  conscious  intelligence  of  the  people. 

But  the  distinctions  in  society  were  rendered  more 
marked  by  the  character  of  the  plebeian  population  of 
Virginia.  Many  of  them  had  reached  the  shores  of 
Virginia  as  servants  ;  doomed,  according  to  the  severe 
laws  of  that  age,  to  a  temporary  bondage.  Some  of 
them,  even,  were  convicts ;  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, the  crimes  of  which  they  were  convicted  were 
chiefly  political.  The  number  transported  to  Virginia 
for  social  crimes  was  never  considerable ;  scarcely 
enough  to  sustain  the  sentiment  of  pride  in  its  scorn 
of  the  laboring  population ;  certainly  not  enough  to 
affect  its  character.  Yet  the  division  of  society  into 
two  classes  was  strongly  marked,  in  a  degree  une 

i  Virginia's  Cure,  by  R.  G.  1663,  p.  8 


SERVANTS  AND   SLAVES   IN   VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  quailed  in  any  northern  colony,  and  unmitigated  by 
^^  public  care  for  education.1  The  system  of  common 
schools  was  unknown.  "  Every  man,"  said  Sir 
William  Berkeley  in  1671,  "  instructs  his  children 
according  to  his  ability;"  a  method  which  left  the 
children  of  the  ignorant  to  hopeless  ignorance.  The 
instinct  of  aristocracy  dreaded  the  general  diffusion  of 
intelligence,  and  even  the  enfranchising  influence  of 
the  preaching  of  the  ministers.  "  The  ministers," 
continued  Sir  William,  in  the  spirit  of  the  aristocracy 
of  the  Tudors,  "  should  pray  oftener  and  preach  less. 
But,  I  thank  God,  there  are  no  free  schools,  nor  print- 
ing ;  and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have,  these  hundred 
years ;  for  learning  has  brought  disobedience,  and 
heresy,  and  sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has 
divulged  them,  and  libels  against  the  best  government. 
God  keep  us  from  both."  Thus,  in  addition  to  the  diffi- 
culties which  the  degraded  caste  of  servants  encountered 
in  their  endeavors  to  lift  themselves  into  distinction, 
the  power  of  the  government  was  exerted  to  depress 
whole  classes  of  society.  We  rightly  abhor  the  envy 
which  delights  in  debasing  excellence ;  it  is  a  still 
greater  crime  against  humanity,  to  combine  against 
the  masses  in  their  struggle  for  intellectual  and  social 
advancement. 

Still  servants  were  emancipated,  when  their  years 
of  servitude  were  ended  ;  and  the  law  was  designed 
to  secure  and  to  hasten  their  enfranchisement.  The 
insurrection,  which  was  plotted  by  a  number  of 
servants  in  1663,  had  its  origin  in  impatience  of 

1  "  Their  almost    general   want  the  arguments  drawn  from  thcnco. 

of  schooles,  for  the  education  of  most  likely  to  prevail  with  them 

their  children,  is  of  most  sad  con-  chearfully  to  embrace   the  Rerne- 

sideration,  most  of  all  bewailed  of  dy."     Virginia's  Cure,  p.  5. 
the  parents    there,  and    therefore 


SERVANTS   AND  SLAVES   IN  VIRGINIA  193 

servitude  and  oppression.  A  few  bondmen,  soidiers  CHAP 
of  Cromwell,  and  probably  Roundheads,  were  excited  -— X 
by  their  own  sufferings,  and  by  the  nature  of  life  in  the 
wilderness,  to  indulge  once  more  in  vague  desires  for 
a  purer  church  and  a  happier  condition.  From  the 
character  of  the  times,  their  passions  were  sustained 
by  political  fanaticism ;  but  no  definite  plan  of  revo- 
lution was  devised  ;  nor  did  the  conspiracy  extend 
beyond  a  scheme  of  indented  servants  to  anticipate 
the  period  of  their  freedom.  The  effort  was  the  work 
of  ignorant  men,  and  was  easily  suppressed.1  The 
facility  of  escape  compelled  humane  treatment  of  white 
servants. 

Towards  the  negro  the  laws  were  less  tolerant. 
The  statute  which  declares  who  are  slaves,  followed 
the  old  idea,  long  prevalent  through  Christendom, 
"All  servants,  not  being  Christians,  imported  into  this  1670 
country  by  shipping,  shall  be  slaves."  Yet  it  was 
added,  "conversion  to  the  Christian  faith  doth  not  1682 
make  free."  The  early  Anglo-Saxon  rule,  interpret- 
ing every  doubtful  question  in  favor  of  liberty,  declared 
the  children  of  freemen  to  be  free.  Virginia  was 
humane  towards  men  of  the  white  race ;  was  severe 
towards  the  negro.  Doubts  arose,  if  the  offspring  of 
an  Englishman  by  a  negro  woman  should  be  bond  or 

O  *r  O 

free ;   and  the  rule  of  the  Roman  law  prevailed  over  I66y 
the  Anglo-Saxon.     The  offspring  followed  the  condi- 
tion of  its  mother.     Enfranchisement  of  the  colored 
population  was  not  encouraged  ;  the  female  slave  was 
not  subject  to  taxation  ;  the  emancipated  negress  was  1CC8 
"a  tithable."     "The  death  of  a  slave  from  extremity 
of  correction,    was    not  accounted    felony ;    since    it 

1  Honing,  ii.  510.    Beverley.  MS.    of    the    General    Court    of    Vir 
Letter  from   N.  P.  Howard,  clerk     ginia. 

VOL.  ii.  25 


194  AMBITION  OF  THE  ARISTOCRACY. 

CHAP,  cannot  be   presumed" — such  is   the  language  of  the 

XIV 

-~^~  statute — "  that  prepensed  malice,  which  alone  makes 
1069   murther  felony,  should  induce  any  man  to  destroy  his 
own  estate."     The  legislature  did  not  understand  hu- 
man passion  ;  no  such  opinion  now  prevails.     Finally, 
I672.it  was  made  lawful  for    "persons,  pursuing  fugitive 
colored  slaves,  to  wound,  or  even  to  kill  them."     The 
master  was  absolute  lord  over  the  negro.     The  slave, 
and    the    slave's    posterity,    were    bondmen ;    though 
afterwards,  when  the  question  was  raised,  the  devise 
of  negro  children  in  posse,  the  future  increase  of  a 
bondwoman,  was  void.     As  property  in  Virginia  con- 
sisted  almost   exclusively   of  land   and   laborers,  the 
increase  of  negro  slaves  was  grateful  to  the  pride  and 
to  the  interests  of  the  large  landed  proprietors.     After 
a   long    series   of    years,    the    institution   of    slavery 
renewed  a  landed  aristocracy,   closely  resembling  the 
feudal  nobility;   the  culminating  point  was  the  period 
1705.  when  slaves  were  declared  to  be  real  estate^  and  might 
1727.  be  constituted  by  the  owner  adscripts  to  the  soil.1 

The  aristocracy  which  was  thus  confirmed  in  its 
influence  by  the  extent  of  its  domains,  by  its  superior 
intelligence,  and  by  the  character  of  a  large  part  of 
the  laboring  class,  naturally  aspired  to  the  government 
of  the  country;  from  among  them  the  council  was 
selected  ;  many  of  them  were  returned  as  members  of 
the  legislature ;  and  in  the  organization  of  the  militia, 
they  also  held  commissions.  The  entire  absence  of 
local  municipal  governments  necessarily  led  to  an 
extension,  unparalleled  in  the  United  States,  of  the 
power  of  the  magistrates.  The  justices  of  the  peace 
for  each  county  fixed  the  amount  of  county  taxes, 

1  Hening,  ii.  283,  490,  491,  170,  Virginia  Practice,  i.  527.  Hening 
W7,  270,  299.  Conway  Robinson's  iv.  222.  Compare  v.  432. 


PARTIES   IN   VIRGINIA   ON   THE   RESTORATION.  195 

assessed  and  collected  them,  and  superintended  their  CHAP 
disbursement ;  so  that  military,  judicial,  legislative,  and  -~C 
executive  powers  were  often  deposited  in  the  hands  of 
men,  who,  as  owners  of  large  estates,  masters  of  many 
indented  servants,  and  lords  of  slaves,  already  began 
to  exhibit  the  first  indications  of  an  established  aris- 
locracy. 

Thus,  at  the  period  of  the  restoration,  two  elements  i860 
were  contending  for  the  mastery  in  the  political  life  of 
Virginia;  on  the  one  hand,  there  was  in  the  Old 
Dominion  a  people ;  on  the  other,  a  rising  aristocracy. 
The  present  decision  of  the  contest  would  depend  on 
the  side  to  which  the  sovereign  of  the  country  would 
incline.  During  the  few  years  of  the  interruption  of 
monarchy  in  England,  that  sovereign  had  been  the 
people  of  Virginia ;  and  its  mild  and  beneficent  legis- 
lation, careless  of  theory,  and  unconscious  of  obeying 
impulses  which  were  controlling  the  common  advance- 
ment of  humanity,  had  begun  to  loosen  the  cords  of 
religious  bigotry,  to  confirm  equality  of  franchises,  to 
foster  colonial  industry  by  freedom  of  traffic  with  the 
world.  The  restoration  of  monarchy  changed  the 
course  of  events,  took  from  the  people  of  Virginia  the 
power  which  was  not  to  be  recovered  for  more  than 
a  century,  and  gave  to  the  forming  aristocracy  a 
powerful  ally  in  the  royal  government  and  its  officers. 
The  early  history  of  Virginia  not  only  illustrates  the 
humane  and  ameliorating  influences  of  popular  free- 
dom, but  also  presents  a  picture  of  the  confusion, 
discontent,  and  carnage,  which  are  the  natural  con- 
sequences of  selfish  legislation  and  a  retrograde  move- 
ment in  the  cause  of  popular  liberty. 

The  emigrant  royalists  had  hitherto  not  acted  as  a 
political  party,  but  took  advantage  of  peace  to  estab- 


196  ELECTION   OF  A   ROYALIST  ASSEMBLY 

CHAP,  lish  their  fortunes.1     Their  numbers  were  constantly 

XIV 

- — -~  increasing;    their   character    and   education    procured 

1 660.  them  respect  and  influence  ;  yet  no  collisions  ensued. 
If  one  assembly  had,  what  Massachusetts  never  did, 
submitted    to    Richard    Cromwell — if    another    had 
elected    Berkeley    as    governor — the    power    of   the 
people  still  preserved   its  vigor,  and  controlled  legis- 
lative action.     But  on  the  tidings  of  the  restoration 
of  Charles  II.,  the  fires  of  loyalty  blazed  up,  perhaps 
the  more  vehemently  for  their  long  inactivity.     Vir- 
ginia shared   the  passionate  joy  of  England.     In  the 
mother-country,  the  spirit  of  popular  liberty,  contending 
at  once  with  ancient  institutions  which  it  could  not 
overthrow,  had  been  productive  of  much  calamity,  and 
had  overwhelmed  the  tenets  of  popular  enfranchise- 
ment in  disgust  and  abhorrence.     In  Virginia,  where 
no  such  ancient  abuses  existed,  the  same  spirit  had 
been  productive  only  of  benefits.     Yet  to  the  colony 
England  still  seemed  a  home  ;  and  the  spirit  of  English 
loyalty  pervaded  the  plantations  along  the  Chesapeake. 
With  the  people  it  was  a  generous  enthusiasm  ;    to 
many  of  the  leading  men  loyalty  opened  a  career  for 
ambition ;    and    with    general   consent,    Sir   William 
Berkeley,    no  longer   acting  as  governor,  elected   by 
the  people,    but   assuming  such  powers  as  his  royal 
commission   bestowed,   issued  writs   for   an  assembly 
in    the   name   of  the    king.2     The   sovereignty  over 
itself,  which  Virginia  had  exercised  so  well,  had  come 
to  an  end. 

The  excitement  of  the  moment  favored  the  friends 
of  royalty ;  and  the  first  assembly  which  was  elected 

1661.  after  the  restoration,  was  composed  of  landholders  and 
Cavaliers ;  men  in  whose  breasts  the  passions  of  colo 

1  Clarendon.  2  Burk.  ii.  120. 


ELECTION   OF  A   ROYALIS1    ASSEMBLY.  197 

uial  life  had  not  wholly  mastered  the  attachment  to  CHAP 

XIV 

English  usages.     Of  the  assembly  of  1654,  not  more  — -*• 
than  two  members  were  elected  at   the  restoration;  1661 
of  the  assembly  of  March,  1660,  of  which  an  adjourned 
meeting    was    held    in    October,    the   last   assembly 
elected  during  the  interruption,  only  eight  were  re- 
elected  to  the  first  assembly  of  Charles  II.,  and,  of 
these  eight,  not  more  than  five  retained  their  places.1 
New  men  came  upon  the  theatre  of  legislation,  bring-    MaT 
ing  with  them  new  principles.     The  restoration  was,     12 
for  Virginia,  a  political  revolution. 

The  "  first  session  " 2  of  the  royalist  assembly  was  in 
March,  1661.  One  of  its  earliest  acts — disfranchising  MM, 
a  magistrate  "  for  factious  and  schismatical  demean- 
ors,"3— marks  its  political  character;  but,  as  demo- 
cratic institutions  had  tranquilly  and  naturally  been 
introduced,  so  the  changes  which  were  now  to  take 
place,  proceeded  from  the  instinct  of  selfishness,  the 
hatred  to  popular  power,  the  blind  respect  for  English 
precedents,  and  not  from  any  settled  theory  of  govern- 
ment, or  well-developed  principles  of  conduct. 

The  apprehensions  of  Virginia  were  awakened  by 
the  establishment  of  the  colonial  monopoly  in  the  navi- 
gation act ;  and  the  assembly,  alarmed  at  this  open  vio- 
lation of  the  natural  and  prescriptive  "  freedoms  "  of 
the  colony,  appointed  Sir  William  Berkeley  its  agent, 
to  present  the  grievances  of  Virginia  and  procure  their 
redress.  Here,  again,  the  influence  of  royalist  legis- 


1  Hening,  i.  386, 387,  and  526—  1660,  was  still  the  last  republican 
>30 ;  ii.  197,  &c.  250.  assembly.     Berkeley  had  been  di- 

2  That  this  was  the  "first  ses-  rected  to  issue  forth  his  summons  to 
Hon,"  appears  from  comparing  He-  the  "  present  burgesses ; "  that  is,  to 
•ling,  ii.  147,  with  Hening,  ii.  31.  those  chosen  before  the  restoration 
Burk,  ii.  120,  seems  to  have  been  Hening,  i.  542,  543. 

;onfused  by  the  old  mode  of  reckon-  3  Hening,    ii.  39.      The  victim 

oig.    The  assembly  of  October  11,  was  "  Major  John  Bond." 


198  NAVIGATION  ACT  OPPRESSIVE. 

CHAP,  lation  is  perceptible ;  no  distrust  of  the  royal  power 
— ^-  was  excited ;    freedom   of  trade   was   the  object   to 
1661.  which   desires   were    directed,    and   Virginia  reposed 
confidently  in  the  favor  of  its  monarch.     Far  different 
had   been    the   course   of  the   New  England   states, 
where  the  perpetual  dread  of  royal  interference  per- 
severed in  soliciting  charters,  till  they  were  obtained. 
Virginia,  unhappy  in   her  confidence,  lost  irrevocably 
the  opportunity  of  obtaining  a  liberal  patent. 

The  Ancient  Dominion  was  equally  unfortunate  in 
the  selection  of  its  agent.  Sir  William  Berkeley  did 
not,  even  after  years  of  experience,  understand  the 
principles  of  the  act  against  which  he  was  deputed  to 
expostulate.  We  have  seen  that  he  obtained  for 
himself  and  partners  a  portion  of  the  territory  of  Vir- 
ginia ;  for  the  colony  he  did  not  secure  one  franchise. 
It  merits  remark  that,  even  at  the  hands  of  Charles 
II.,  the  democratic  colonies  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut  received  greater  favor  than  Virginia. 
The  king  employed  the  loyalty  of  Virginia  to  its 
injury. 

For  more  than  a  year  the  navigation  act,  which  had 
July  been  communicated  to  the  Dutch  merchants  of  Ne\\ 
Belgium,  was  virtually  evaded  in  Virginia ; 1  mariners 
of  New  England,  lading  their  vessels  with  tobacco, 
did  but  touch  at  a  New  England  harbor  on  the  Sound, 
and  immediately  sail  for  the  wharves  of  New  Amster- 
dam. But  this  remedy  was  partial  and  transient. 
By  the  very  nature  of  foreign  commerce,  the  act  of 
navigation  could  easily  be  executed  in  Virginia,  be- 
cause the  colony  had  few  ships  of  its  own,  and  no 
foreign  vessel  dared  to  enter  its  ports  ;'and  the  unequal 
legislation  pressed  upon  its  interests  with  intense  se- 

1  Stuyvesant,  July  15,  1662.    Albany  Records,  xviii.  1U7,  and  157, 158. 


STATE   OF  PARTIES   IN    VIRGINIA.  199 

verity.     The  number  of  the  purchasers  of  its  tobacco  CHAP 

was  diminished ;  and  the  English  merchants,  sure  of 

their  market,  grew  careless  about  the  quality  of  the  !66l. 
article  which  they  supplied.     To  the  colonist  as  con- 
sumer, the  price  of  foreign  goods  was  enhanced ;  to 
the  colonist  as  producer,  the  opportunity  of  a  market 
was  narrowed. 

Virginia  long  attempted  to  devise  a  remedy  against 
the  commercial  oppression  of  England.  It  was  the 
strong,  exercising  tyranny  over  the  weak  ;  there  could 
be  no  remedy  but  independence.  Yet  the  planters 
vainly  flattered  themselves  that,  by  producing  an  arti- 
ficial scarcity  of  tobacco,  they  might  alleviate  their 
distress  ;  and  it  was  repeatedly  proposed  to  Carolina 
and  Maryland,  to  omit  for  a  year  the  culture  of  their 
staple.  These  negotiations  always  remained  fruitless ; 
yet  the  pertinacity  with  which  they  were  pursued, 
proves  the  extremity  of  suffering  occasioned  by  the 
acts  of  navigation.1 

The  burden  laid  upon  the  intercolonial  traffic  was  1672 
the  more  intolerable  to  the  Virginians,  because  it  pro- 
duced no  revenue.  It  was  established  exclusively  to 
favor  the  monopoly  of  the  English  merchant ;  and  its 
avails  were  all  abandoned  as  a  good  income  to  the 
officers  to  stimulate  their  vigilance.2 

Thus,  at  the  very  season  when  the  rising  aristocracy 
of  Virginia  was  seeking,  by  the  aid  of  royal  influence, 
to  confirm  its  supremacy,  the  policy  of  the  English 
government  oppressed  colonial  industry  so  severely  as 
to  excite  the  hostility  of  the  united  province.  The 
party  which  separated  itself  from  the  people,  and 
united  with  the  king  in  the  desire  of  gaining  a 

i  Hening,  it.  190,  200,  209,  221,  224,  228,  229,  232,  251,  252. 
SBeverley  66. 


200  LEGISLATION  OF  A  ROYALIST  ASSEMBLY. 

CHAP,  triumph  over  democratic  influences,  was  always  on 
^-v-«L  the  point  of  reconciling  itself  with  the  people,  and 
1661  making  a  common  cause  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
metropolis.  On  the  one  hand,  it  was  impelled  to 
rest  for  support  and  look  for  favor  to  the  English 
monarch ;  and  on  the  other,  by  a  community  of 
national  pride  and  a  fellowship  of  interests  and 
wrongs,  it  was  blended  with  the  people.  The 
/really  adverse  parties  in  Virginia  were  royalists, 
and  the  people.  The  landed  aristocracy  of  Vir- 
ginia was  divided  in  its  affections ;  and  the  side 
to  which  it  inclined  was  always  sure  of  victory. 
Did  it  combine  with  monarchy  ?  A  retrograde  move- 
ment in  society  was  the  consequence.  Did  it  join 
with  the  people?  Such  union  was  the  harbinger  of 
success  to  popular  liberty,  and  of  progress  towards 
independence. 

At  the  epoch  of  the  restoration,  the  rising  aristocracy 
gained  the  ascendency  in  the  legislature.  We  have 
seen  that  the  assembly  disfranchised  "  a  factious  and 
schismatical  magistrate ; "  in  the  course  of  its  long- 
continued  sessions,  it  modified  the  democratical  fea- 
tures of  the  constitution,  and  effected  a  radical  change 
in  favor  of  aristocratic  influences.  The  committee 
which  was  appointed  to  reduce  the  laws  of  Virginia 
to  a  code,  introduced  no  new  principles  favorable  to 
1662.  liberty,  but  as  if  society  were  capable  of  being  checked 
M*  in  its  progress,  and  confined  to  fixed  forms,  it  restored 
the  ancient  institutions,  and  repealed  the  milder  laws 
that  Virginia  had  adopted  when  she  governed  hers*  If. 
The  English  Episcopal  church  became  once  more  the 
religion  of  the  state ;  and  though  there  were  not 
ministers  in  above  a  fifth  part  of  the  parishes,  so 
that  the  church  was  scattered  in  the  desolate  places 


LEGISLATION   OF  A   ROYALIST   ASSEMBLY. 

of  the   wilderness  without  comeliness.1   yet  the  laws  CHAP 

XIV 

demanded  strict  conformity,  and  required  of  every  one  — v^L 
to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the  established  church.  1662 
For  assessing  parish  taxes  twelve  vestrymen  were  now 
to  be  chosen  in  each  parish,  with  power  to  fill  all 
vacancies  in  their  own  body.  Here  was  a  revolution 
in  church  affairs  ;  the  control  passed  from  the  parish 
to  a  close  corporation,  which  the  parish  could  neither 
alter  nor  overrule.  In  England,  dissenters  were  at- 
tempting changes  in  the  liturgy  ;  Virginia  required 
the  whole  liturgy  to  be  thoroughly  read ;  no  non- 
conformist might  teach,  even  in  private,  under  pain  of 
banishment ;  no  reader  might  expound  the  Catechism 
or  the  Scriptures.  The  obsolete  severity  of  the  laws 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  was  revived  against  the  Quakers. 
Absence  from  church  was  for  them  an  offence,  pun- 
ishable by  a  monthly  fine  of  twenty  pounds  sterling. 
To  meet  in  conventicles  of  their  own,  was  forbidden 
under  further  penalties. 

Nor  did  the  law  remain  a  dead  letter.  A  large 
number  of  Quakers  was  arraigned  before  the  court,  as 
recusants.  "  Tender  consciences,"  said  Owen  firmly, 
"  must  obey  the  law  of  God,  however  they  suffer." — 
"There  is  no  toleration  for  wicked  consciences."" 
was  the  reply  of  the  court. 

The  reformation  had  diminished  the  power  of 
the  clergy  by  declaring  marriage  a  civil  contract, 
not  a  sacrament.  The  Independents  allowed  no 
marriage  but  by  the  magistrates ;  Virginia  tolerated 
none  but  according  to  the  rubric  in  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer 

Religious    bigotry    recovered    all    the    advantages 

1  Virginia's  Cure,  1662.  p.  2  and        2    Richmond    Records,    No.    2. 
19.  1660  to  1664,  p.  82. 

VOL.    II.  26 


202  LEGISLATION  OF  A   ROYALIST  ASSEMBLY. 

CHAP  which  had  begun  to  yield  to  the  progress  of  opinion.1 
^v^  Among  the  plebeian  sects  of  Christianity,  the  single- 
id  62.  minded  simplicity  with  which  the  Baptists  had,  from 
their  origin,  asserted  the  enfranchisement  of  mind,  and 
the  equal  rights  of  the  humblest  classes  of  society, 
naturally  won  converts  in  America  at  an  early  day. 
Dec.   The  legislature  of  Virginia,  assembling  soon  after  the 
return  of  Berkeley  from  a  voyage  that  had  been  fruitless 
to  the  colony,  declared  to  the  world  that  there  were 
scattered  among  the  rude  settlements  of  the  Ancient 
Dominion    "  many  schismatical  persons,  so  averse  to 
the  established  religion,  and  so  filled  with  the  new- 
fangled conceits  of  their  own  heretical  inventions,  as 
to  refuse  to  have  their  children  baptized;"2   and  the 
novelty  was  punished  by  a  heavy  mulct.     The  free- 
dom of  the  forests  favored  originality  of  thought ;    in 
spite  of  legislation,  men  listened  to  the  voice  within 
themselves  as  to  the  highest  authority;  and  Quakers 
663.  continued    to  multiply.      Virginia,  as   if  resolved    to 
hasten  the  colonization  of  North  Carolina,  sharpened 
her  laws  against  all  separatists,  punished  their  meetings 
by  heavy  fines,  and  ordered  the  more  affluent  to  pay 
the  forfeitures  of  the  poor.     The  colony  that  should 
have  opened  its  doors   wide   to   all   the  persecuted, 
punished  the  ship-master  that  received  non-conformists 
as  passengers,  and  threatened  such  as  resided  in  the 
colony  with  banishment.3     John   Porter,  the  burgess 
Sept.   for  Lower  Norfolk,  was  expelled  from  the  assembly, 
"  because  he  was  well  affected  to  the  Quakers.'14 
The  legislature  was  equally  friendly  to  the  power 

1  Hening,  ii.  44 — 50.  is     plainly     in     error.       Anabap- 

2  Ibid.  ii.   106.     Semple,  in  his    tists    are    again    named,    Hening 
History   of  the  Baptists    in    Vir-    ii.  198. 

ginia,   p.  1,   gives   them  an  origin         3  Hening,  ii.  180 — 183. 
later    by    a    half    century.      He        4  Ibid.  ii.  198. 


LEGISLATION  OF  A  ROYALIST   LEGISLATURE.  203 

of  the    crown.     In    every   colony   where    Puritanism  CHAP. 
prevailed,  there  was  a  uniform   disposition  to  refuse  ^-^ 
a  fixed  salary  to  the  royal  governor.     Virginia,  at  a  1658 
time   when   the  chief  magistrate  was  elected  by  its 
own    citizens,    had    voted    a   fixed    salary    for    that 
magistrate ;    but  the  measure,  even  then,  was  so  lit- 
tle agreeable  to  the   people,  that   its  next  assembly  :  659. 
repealed  the  law.1     The  royalist   legislature,  for   the  1662* 
purpose  of  well  paying  his   majesty's  officers,  estab- 
lished a  perpetual  revenue  by  a  permanent  imposition 
on   all   exported   tobacco ;    and   the  royal  officers  of 
Virginia,  requiring  no  further  action  of  an  assembly 
for  granting  taxes,  were  placed  above  the  influence  of 
colonial  legislation.2     They  depended  on  the  province 
neither  for  their  appointment  nor  their  salary,  and  the 
country  was  governed  according  to  royal  instructions,3 
which  did,  indeed,  recognize  the  existence  of  colonial  1662 
assemblies,   but   offered    no    guaranty  for  their  con-     12, 
tinuance.     The  permanent  salary  of  the  governor  of 
Virginia,  increased  by  a  special  grant  from  the  colonial 
legislature,   exceeded    the  whole   annual   expenditure 
of  Connecticut ;    but   Berkeley   was   dissatisfied.     A 
thousand  pounds  a  year  would  not,  he  used  to  say, 
"  maintain  the  port  of  his  place ;  no  government  of 
ten  years'   standing  but  has   thrice  as  much  allowed 
him.     But    I    am   supported    by  my  hopes,   that  his 
gracious  majesty  will  one  day  consider  me."4     Such 
was  a  royal    governor ;    how   unlike   the    spirit   that 
prevailed,  where  the  magistrates  were  elected  by  the 
people  !     Winthrop  of  Massachusetts  expended  all  his 
estate  for  the  commonwealth  ;  Berkeley  was  dissatis- 

1  Herring,  i.  49S--523.  4   Chalmers,    528.      Hening,    u 

2  Ibid.  ii.  130 — 132.  516.     Berkeley's  commission  wa* 

3  Richmond     Records,     No.  2.    not  a  commission  ftr  life. 
1660  to  1664,  p.  130—135. 


204  LEGISLATION  OF  A   ROYALIST  LKG1SLATURK. 

CHAP,  fied  even  after  a  grant  of  tens  of  thousands  of  square 

XIV. 

— ~  miles. 

1662.  The  organization  of  the  judiciary  placed  that  de- 
partment of  the  government  almost  entirely  beyond 
the  control  of  the  people.  The  governor  and  council 
were  the  highest  ordinary  tribunal ;  and  these  were 
all  appointed,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  crown  , 
besides  this,  there  were  in  each  county  eight  unpaid J 
justices  of  the  peace,  commissioned  by  the  governor 
during  his  pleasure.  These  justices  held  monthly 
courts,  in  their  respective  counties.2  Thus  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  in  the  counties,  was  in  the 
hands  of  persons  holding  their  offices  at  the  good  will 
of  the  governor ;  while  the  governor  himself  and  his 
executive  council  constituted  the  General  Court,  and 
had  cognizance  of  all  sorts  of  causes.  Was  an  appeal 
made  to  chancery  ?  It  was  but  for  another  hearing 
before  the  same  men  ;  and  it  was  only  for  a  few  years 
longer  that  appeals  were  permitted  from  the  general 
court  to  the  assembly.  The  place  of  sheriff  in  each 
county  was  conferred  on  one  of  the  justices  for  that 
county,  and  so  devolved  to  every  commissioner  in 
course.3  This  organization  of  the  county  courts  in 
Virginia  continues  to-day,  except  that  the  justices  hold 
their  places  for  life,  and  nominate  their  associates  and 
successors. 

But  the  county  courts,  thus  independent  of  the 
people,  possessed  and  exercised  the  arbitrary  power 
of  levying  county  taxes,  which,  in  their  amount, 
usually  exceeded  the  public  levy.4  This  system  pro- 
cieeded  so  far,  that  the  commissioners,  of  themselves, 

1  Herring,  ii.  244.  p.  43.    Printed  in  1727,  but  written 

2  Ibid.  ii.  71,  72.     Compare  the  near  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
very  important  tract  of  Hartwell,  century.     Beverley,  220,  221. 
Blair,   and  Chilton,— The    Present        3  Hening,  ii.  21  and  78. 

State  of  Virginia  and  the  College,        *  Bland,  in  Burk,  ii.  248. 


LEGISLATION  OF  A   ROYALIST  LEGISLATURE.  205 

levied  taxes   to  meet  their  own   expenses.1     In   like  CHAP 

XIV. 

manner,  the  self-perpetuating  vestries  made  out  their  •— -^ 
lists  of  tithables,  and  assessed  taxes  without  regard 
to  the  consent  of  the  parish.2  These  private  levies 
were  unequal  and  oppressive;  were  seldom,  it  is  said, 
never,  brought  to  audit,  and  were,  in  some  cases  at 
least,  managed  by  men  who  combined  to  defraud  the 
public.3 

For  the  organization  of  the  courts,  ancient  usage 
could  be  pleaded.  It  was  a  series  of  innovations, 
which  gradually  effected  a  revolution  in  the  system  of 
representation. 

The  members  of  the  first  assembly  convened  after  166S 
the  restoration,  had  been  chosen  for  a  term  of  service 
extending  only  through  two  years  ;  the  rule  of  bien- 
nial assemblies  was  adopted  in  Virginia.4  The  law, 
which  limited  the  duration  of  legislative  service,  and 
secured  the  benefits  of  frequent  elections  and  swift 
responsibility,  was  now  silently,  but  "  utterly  abro- 
gated and  repealed."5  Thus  the  legislators,  on  whom 
the  people  had  conferred  a  political  existence  of 
two  years,  assumed  to  themselves,  by  their  own  act, 
an  indefinite  continuance  of  power.  The  parliament 
of  England,  chosen  on  the  restoration,  was  not  dis- 
solved for  eighteen  years.  The  legislature  of  Virginia 
retained  its  authority  for  almost  as  long  a  period,  and 
yielded  it  only  to  an  insurrection.  Meantime  "  the 
meeting  of  the  people,  at  the  usual  places  of  election," 
had  for  their  object,  not  to  elect  burgesses,  but  to 
present  their  grievances  to  the  burgesses  of  the  ad- 
journed assembly.6 


1  Hening,  ii.  315,  316.  «  Hening,  i.  517. 

2  Ibid.  ii.  310.  5  ibid.  ii.  43. 

3  Culpepper,  in  Chalmers,  355.  6  ibid.  ii.  211,  212. 


20fi  LEGISLATION  OF  A  ROYALIST  LEGISLATURE. 

CHAP.  The  wages  of  the  burgesses  were  paid  by  the 
-^•v-v  respective  counties  ;  and  their  constituents  possessed 
influence  to  determine  both  the  number  of  burgesses 
to  be  elected  and  the  rate  of  their  emoluments.  This 
method  of  influence  was  taken  away  by  a  law,  which, 
wisely  but  for  its  coincidence  with  other  measures, 
fixed  both  the  number  and  the  charge  of  the  burgesses. 
But  the  rate  of  wages  was  for  that  age  enormous- 
ly burdensome,  far  greater  than  is  tolerated  in  the 
wealthiest  states  in  these  days  of  opulence;  and  it 
was  fixed  by  an  assembly  for  its  own  members,  who 
had  usurped,  as  it  were,  a  perpetuity  of  office.  The 
taxes  for  this  purpose  were  paid  with  great  reluctance,1 
and,  as  they  amounted  to  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  of  tobacco  for  the  daily  emoluments  of  each 
member,  became  for  a  new  country  an  intolerable 
grievance.  Discontent  was  increased  by  the  favorit- 
ism which  exempted  the  councillors  from  the  levies.9 
The  freedom  of  elections  was  further  impaired 
by  "  frequent  false  returns "  made  by  the  sheriffs.3 
Against  these  the  people  had  no  sufficient  redress  ;  for 
the  sheriffs  were  responsible  neither  to  them  nor  to 
officers  of  their  appointment.  And  how  could  a  more 
pregnant  cause  of  discontent  exist  in  a  country,  where 
the  elective  franchise  was  cherished  as  the  dearest 
civil  privilege  ? 

How  dear  that  franchise  was  held  by  the  people  of 
Virginia,  is  distinctly  told  in  their  records.  No  direct 
taxes  were  levied  in  those  days  except  on  polls  ;  lands 


1  Virginia's  Cure,  p.  2.     Hening,  in  those  days  of  poverty  the  burgesa 

n.  20,  23,  106,  309,  325.     Bland,  in  received  probably  about  nine  dollars 

Burk,  ii.  248.    Lord  Baltimore,  for  a  day. 

his  quit-rents,  received  tobacco  at  2  Compare   Hening,  ii.  84,  with 

two  pence  a  pound.     It  was  not  359,  392. 

worth  so  much  on  the  average,  yet  3  Hening,  ii.  356. 


LEGISLATION   OF  A   ROYALIST  LEGISLATURE.  207 

escaped  taxation.     The  method,  less  arbitrary  in  Vir-  CHAP 
ginia,  where  property  consisted  chiefly  in  a  claim  to  ^^- 
the  labor  of  servants  and  slaves,  than  in  a  commercial 
country,  or  where  labor  is  free,  was  yet  oppressive  to 
the  less  wealthy  classes.     The  burgesses,  themselves  1663 
great  landholders,  resisted  the  reform  which  Berkeley     27. 
had  urged,1  and  connected  the  burden  of  the  tax  with 
the  privileges  of  citizenship.     If  land  should  be  taxed, 
none  but  landholders  should  elect  the  legislature ;  and 
then,  it  was  added,   "  the  other  freemen,  who  are  the 
more  in  number,   may  repine   to  be   bound   to  those 
laws,  they  have  no  representations  to  assent  to  the 
making   of.     And   we   are    so   well   acquainted  with 
the  temper  of  the   people,    that   we  have  reason   to 
believe  they  had  rather  pay  their  tax,  than  lose  that 
privilege."  2 

Thus  was  the  jealous  love  for  liberty  remembered, 
when  it  furnished  an  excuse  for  continuing  an  unjust 
method  of  taxation.  But  the  system  of  universal 
suffrage  could  not  permanently  find  favor  with  an 
assembly  which  had  given  to  itself  an  indefinite 
existence,  and  which  labored  to  reproduce  in  the 
New  World  the  inequalities  of  English  legislation. 
It  was  discovered  that  "  the  usual  way  of  chusing 
burgesses  by  the  votes  of  all  freemen,"  produced 
"  tumults  and  disturbance."  The  instinct  of  aristo- 
cratic bigotry  denied  that  the  electors  would  make 
''  choyce  of  persons  fitly  qualified  for  so  greate  a 
trust."  The  restrictions,  adopted  by  the  monarchical 
government  of  England,  were  cited  as  a  fit  precedent  167Q 
for  English  colonies  ;  and  it  was  enacted  that  "  none  Oct 

1  Hening,  li.  204.    "  A  levy  upon        2  Richmond     Records,     No.    2. 
lands  and  not  upon  heads."  1660  to  1664,  p.  175. 


208  LEGISLATION    OF  A    ROYALIST   LEGISLATURE. 

CHAP,  but  freeholders  and  housekeepers  shall  hereafter  have 

XIV. 

>-^v^  a  voice  in  the  election  of  any  burgesses." 
1670  Thus  was  a  majority  of  the  people  of  Virginia  dis- 
franchised by  the  act  of  their  own  representatives. 
So  true  it  is,  that,  in  representative  governments, 
unless  power  be  limited,  and  responsibility  steadily 
maintained,  the  choice  of  representatives  becomes  the 
establishment  of  a  tyranny. 

The  great  result  of  modern  civilization  is  the 
./diffusion  of  intelligence  among  the  masses,  and  a 
consequent  increase  of  their  political  consideration. 
The  result  is  observable  every  where.  In  the  field, 
the  fate  of  battles  depends  on  infantry,  and  no  longer 
on  the  cavalry.  Influence  has  passed  away  from 
walled  towns  and  fortresses  to  the  busy  scenes  of 
commercial  industry,  and  to  the  abodes  of  rustic 
independence ;  an  active  press  has  increased,  and  is 
steadily  increasing,  the  number  of  reflecting  minds  that 
demand  a  reason  for  conduct,  and  exercise  themselves 
in  efforts  to  solve  the  problem  of  existence  and  human 
destiny.  Every  where  the  power  of  the  people  has 
increased ;  it  is  the  undisputed  induction  from  the 
history  of  every  nation  of  European  origin.  The 
restoration  of  Charles  II.  was,  therefore,  to  Virginia 
a  political  revolution,  opposed  to  the  principles  of 
popular  liberty  and  the  progress  of  humanity.  An 
assembly  continuing  for  an  indefinite  period  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  governor,  and  decreeing  to  its  mem- 
bers extravagant  and  burdensome  emoluments ;  a 
royal  governor,  whose  salary  was  established  by  a 
permanent  system  of  taxation ;  a  constituency  re- 
stricted and  diminished ;  religious  liberty  taken  away 

I  Hening,  ii.  280. 


CHARLES   II     GIVES   AWAY   VIRGINIA.  209 

almost  as  soon  as  it  had  been  won :  arbitrary  taxation  CHAP 

XIV 

in  the  counties  by  irresponsible  magistrates ;  a  hostility  — >~ 
to  popular  education,  and  to  the  press ; — these  were 
the  changes  which,  in  about  ten  years,  were  effected 
in  a  province  that  had  begun  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of 
a  virtual  independence,  and  a  gradually  ameliorating 
legislation. 

The  English  parliament  had  crippled  the  industry 
of  the  planters  of  Virginia ;  the  colonial  assembly  had 
diminished  the  franchises  and  impaired  the  powers  of 
ts  people ;  Charles  II.  was  equally  careless  of  the 
ights  and  property  of  its  tens  of  thousands  of  inhabit- 
ints.  Just  after  the  execution  of  Charles  I.,  during  1649 
the  extreme  anxiety  and  despair  of  the  royalists,  a 
patent  for  the  Northern  Neck,  that  is,  for  the  country 
between  the  Rappahannock  and  the  Potomac,  had 
been  granted  to  a  company  of  Cavaliers,  as  a  refuge 
for  their  partisans.  About  nine  years  after  the  res- 
toration, this  patent  was  surrendered,  that  a  new  1669 
one  might  be  issued  to  Lord  Culpepper,  who  had 
succeeded  in  acquiring  the  shares  of  all  the  associates. 
The  grant  was  extremely  oppressive,  for  it  included 
plantations  which  had  long  been  cultivated.1  But  the 
prodigality  of  the  king  was  not  exhausted.  To  Lord 
Culpepper,  one  of  the  most  cunning  and  most  covetous 
men  in  England,2  at  the  time  a  member  of  the  com- 
mission for  trade  and  plantations,3  and  to  Henry,  earl 
of  Arlington,  the  best  bred  person  at  the  royal  court, 
allied  to  the  monarch  as  father-in-law  to  the  king's 
son  by  Lady  Castlemaine,  ever  in  debt  exceedingly, 
and  passionately  fond  of  things  rich,  polite,  and  prince-  1673 
'v,4  the  lavish  sovereign  of  England  gave  away  "  all  25. 

1  Beverley,  65.      Chalmers,  330.        3  Evelyn,  ii.  342. 
a  Hartwell,  Blair,  and  Chilton,  31.        *  Ibid.  372,  431. 

VOL.  n.  27 


210  VIRGINIA   REMONSTRATES   AGAINST  THE   GIFT. 

CHAP,  the  dominion  of  land  and  water,  called  Virginia,"  for 

- — ^  the  fall  term  of  thirty-one  years.1 

The  assembly  of  Virginia,  composed  as  it  was,  in 
part  at  least,  of  opulent  landholders,  was  excited 
to  alarm  by  dangers  which  were  menaced  by  the 
thoughtless  grants  of  a  profligate  prince  ;  and  Francis 
Morryson,  Thomas  Ludwell,  and  Robert  Smith,  were 

1674.  appointed  agents  to  sail  for  England,  and  enter  on  the 
21.  difficult  duty  of  recovering  for  the  king  that  supremacy 
which  he  had  so  foolishly  dallied  away.  "  We  are 
unwilling,"  said  the  assembly,  "  and  conceive  we 
ought  not  to  submit  to  those  to  whom  his  majesty, 
upon  misinformation,  hath  granted  the  dominion  over 
us,  who  do  most  contentedly  pay  to  his  majesty  more 
than  we  have  ourselves  for  our  labor.  Whilst  we  labor 
for  the  advantage  of  the  crown,  and  do  wish  we  could 
be  yet  more  advantageous  to  the  king  and  nation,  we 
humbly  request  not  to  be  subjected  to  our  fellow- 
subjects,  but,  for  the  future,  to  be  secured  from  our 
fears  of  being  enslaved."5  Berkeley's  commission  as 
governor  had  expired ;  the  aristocratic  legislature, 
which  had  already  voted  him  a  special  increase  of 
salary,  and  which  had  continued  itself  in  power  by 
his  connivance,  solicited  his  appointment  as  governor 
for  life.3 

The  envoys  of  Virginia  were  instructed  to  ask  for 
the  colony  the  immunities  of  a  corporation ;  for  a 
corporation  could  resist  further  encroachments,  and 
would  be  able,  according  to  the  forms  of  English  law, 
to  purchase  of  the  grantees  their  rights  to  the  coun- 
try. The  agents  more  than  fulfilled  their  instructions. 
They  asserted  the  natural  liberties  of  the  colonists 

*  Hening,  ii.  569—583, 427—521.        2  Burk,  ii.  App.  xxxiii.  xxxiv. 
Bark,  ii.  App.  xxxiv.,  &c.  3  Ibid,  xxxix. 


CHARACTER  AND   CONDITION  OF  THE   VIRGINIAN  21 

claimed,  with  earnest  zeal,  an  exemption  from  arbitra-  CHAP. 

ry  taxation ;    insisted  on  the  indefeasible  right  of  the 

colonists  to  the  enjoyment  of  legislative  powers,  as  the 
birthright  of  the  children  of  Englishmen  ;  and  fortified 
their  demands  by  the  favor  of  Coventry,  whom  they 
extolled  as  one  of  the  worthiest  of  men ; l  by  the  legal 
erudition  of  Jones  and  Winington,2  and  by  the  voices  of 
"  many  great  friends,"  won  by  a  sense  of  humanity, 
or  submitting  to  be  bribed  by  poor  Virginia.3  But 
fidelity,  justice,  and  favor,  were  not  enough  to  secure 
the  object.  The  agents  were  detained  a  twelvemonth 
without  making  any  progress  ;  the  final  failure  has 
been  ascribed  to  tidings  from  Virginia  ;  but  there  is 
reason  to  believe,  that  a  secret  influence  had  been 
irrevocably  exerted  against  the  grant  of  a  charter,4 
before  the  news  reached  England  of  the  events  which 
involved  the  Ancient  Dominion  in  gloomy  disasters. 

For  at  the  time  when  the  envoys  were  appointed, 
Virginia  was  rocking  with  the  excitements  that  grew  1674 
out  of  its  domestic  griefs.  The  rapid  and  effectual 
abridgment  of  its  popular  liberties,  joined  to  the  un- 
certain tenure  of  property  that  followed  the  announce- 
ment of  the  royal  grants,  would  have  roused  any 
nation ;  how  much  more  a  people  like  the  Virginians ! 
The  generation  now  in  existence  were  chiefly  the  fruit 
of  the  soil ;  they  were  children  of  the  woods,  nurtured 
in  the  freedom  of  the  wilderness,  and  dwelling  in 
lonely  cottages,  scattered  along  the  streams.  No 
newspapers  entered  their  houses ;  no  printing-press 
furnished  them  a  book.  They  had  no  recreations  but 

1  Burk,  ii.  App.  xxxix.  and  Ivii.  1676,  in  Burk,  ii.  App.  xxxvi.     He- 

2  Ibid.  xl.  xli.  ning,  ii.  534—537.     Beverley,  66. 

3  Ibid,    xxxix.        u  Some    with,  For  the  documents  generally,  see 
some  without  charge."  Burk,  ii.  App.,  where  they  are  hud 

4  Loyd's    Letter    of    April   19,  died  together.    Hening,  ii.  519,  &c. 


212  CHARACTER  AND  CONDITION  OF  THE   VIRGINIANS 


such  as  nature  provides  in  her  wilds  ;  no  education  but 
---  such  as  parents  in  the  desert  could  give  their  offspring.1 
The  paths  were  bridleways  rather  than  roads  ;  and  the 
highway  surveyors  aimed  at  nothing  more  than  to 
keep  them  clear  of  logs  and  fallen  trees.2  I  doubt  if 
there  existed  what  we  should  call  a  bridge  in  the 
whole  Dominion,  though  it  was  intended  to  build 
some.3  Visits  were  made  in  boats,  or  on  horseback 
through  the  forests  ;  and  the  Virginian,  travelling  with 
his  pouch  of  tobacco  for  currency,  swam  the  rivers, 
where  there  was  neither  ferry  nor  ford.  Almost  every 
planter  was  his  own  mechanic.  The  houses,  for  the 
most  part  of  but  one  story,  and  made  of  wood, 
often  of  logs,  the  windows  closed  by  convenient 
shutters  for  want  of  glass,4  were  sprinkled  at  great 
distances  on  both  sides  of  the  Chesapeake,  from 
the  Potomac  to  the  line  of  Carolina.  There  was 
hardly  such  a  sight  as  a  cluster  of  three  dwellings. 
Jamestown  was  but  a  place  of  a  statehouse,  one 
church,  and  eighteen  houses,5  occupied  by  about  a 
dozen  families.  Till  very  recently,  the  legislature 
had  assembled  in  the  hall  of  an  alehouse.6  Vir- 
ginia had  neither  towns  nor  lawyers.7  A  few  of  the 
wealthier  planters  lived  in  braver  state  at  their  large 
plantations,  and,  surrounded  by  indented  servants  and 
slaves,  produced  a  new  form  of  society,  that  has  some- 
times been  likened  to  the  manners  of  the  patriarchs, 
and  sometimes  to  the  baronial  pride  of  feudalism. 
The  inventory  of  Sir  William  Berkeley  gave  him  sev- 
enty horses,  as  well  as  large  flocks  of  sheep.8  "  Al- 

1  Berkeley,  in  Chalmers  5  Mass.  Hist  Coll.  xL  53. 

»  Hening,  ii.  103.  6  Hening,  ii.  204. 

3  Ibid.     Burk,  ii.  App.  xxxiii.  7  Burk,  ii.  159. 

*  Hammond's  Lear  and  Rachel.  8  Document  in  Burk,  ii.  263. 


DAWN   OF  THE   IDEAS   OF  POLITICAL  213 

most  every  man  lived  within  siffht  of  a  lovely  river."1  CHAP 

XIV 

The  parish  was  of  such  extent,  spreading  over  a  tract  -^v-^ 
which  a  day's  journey  could  not  cross,  that  the  people 
met  together  but  once  on  the  Lord's  day,  a=id  some- 
times not  at  all ;  the  church,  rudely  built  in  some 
central  solitude,  was  seldom  visited  by  the  more  remote 
families,2  and  was  liable  to  become  inaccessible  by 
the  broken  limbs  from  forest-trees,  or  the  wanton 
growth  of  underwood  and  thickets. 

Here  was  a  new  form  of  human  nature.  A  love  of 
freedom  inclining  to  anarchy  pervaded  the  country. 
Among  the  people,  loyalty  was  a  feebler  passion  than 
the  love  of  liberty.  Existence  "without  government" 
seemed  to  promise  to  "the  general  mass" — it  is  a 
genuine  Virginia  sentiment3 — "  a  greater  degree  of 
happiness  "  than  the  tyranny  "  of  the  European  gov- 
ernments." Men  feared  injustice  more  than  they 
feared  disorder.  In  Europe,  people  gathered  in 
towns  ;  here  they  lived  by  themselves.  In  the  Old 
World,  even  the  peasantry  crowded  together  into  com- 
pact villages.  The  farmers  of  Virginia  lived  asunder, 
and  in  their  mild  climate  were  scattered  very  widely, 
rarely  meeting  in  numbers,  except  at  the  horse-race  or 
the  county  court.4 

It  was  among  such  a  people,  which  had  never  been  dis- 
ciplined to  resistance  by  the  heresies  of  sects  or  the  new 
opinions  of  "  factious  "  parties,  which,  till  the  restora- 
tion, had  found  the  wilderness  a  safe  protection  against 
tyranny,  and  had  enjoyed  "  a  fifty  years'  experience 
of  a  government  easy  to  the  people,"  that  the  pressure 
of  increasing  grievances  began  to  excite  open  discon- 

1  Hammond's  Lear  and  Rachel.     Yet  society  without  government  is 

2  Virginia's  Cure,  2,  3.  a  contradiction. 

3  Jefferson's     Writings,     ii.   85.        4  Burk,  ii.   A  pp.  xlix. 


214  FIRST  MOVEMENT  TOWARDS  AN  INSURRECTION. 

CHAP.  tent.      Men  gathered    together  in   the   gloom  of  the 

XIV 

— v^,  forests  to  talk  of  their  hardships.  The  common  peo- 
ple, half  conscious  of  their  wrongs,  half  conscious  of 
the  rightful  remedy,  were  ripe  for  insurrection.  A 
collision  between  prerogative  and  popular  opinion, 
between  that  part  of  the  wealth  of  the  country  which 
was  allied  with  royalism,  and  the  great  mass  of  the 
numbers  and  wealth  of  the  country,  resting  on  popular 
power,  between  the  old  monarchical  system  and  the 
American  popular  system,  was  at  hand.  American 
freedom  had  then  the  principle  of  life,  but  was  un- 
conscious of  its  vitality,  as  the  bird  that  just  begins  to 
peck  at  the  shell.  Opinions  were  coming  into  life ; 
and  the  plastic  effort  of  modern  political  being  was 
blindly,  but  effectually  at  work.1 

1674.  On  the  first2  spontaneous  movement  of  the  common 
people,  the  men  of  wealth  and  established  considera- 
tion kept  aloof.  It  is  always  so  in  revolutions.  The 
revolt  was  easily  suppressed  by  the  calm  advice  "  of 
some  discreet  persons,"  in  whom  the  people  had  confi- 
dence. Yet  the  movement  was  not  without  effect , 
the  county  commissioners  were  ordered  to  levy  no 
more  taxes  for  their  own  emoluments.3  But  as  the 
great  abuses  continued  unreformed,  the  mutinous  dis- 
contents4 of  the  people  were  not  quieted.  The  com 
mon  people  were  rendered  desperate  by  taxes,  which 

1C75  deprived  labor  of  nearly  all  its  earnings  ;   and  the  ex- 

Ifi76.  citement  was  increased,  when,  after  a  year's  patience 
under  accumulated  oppressions,  they  received  from 
the  envoys  of  the  colony,  themselves  by  their  heavy 
expenses  a  new  burden,  no  hope  of  a  remedy  from 

*  Bland,  in  Burk,  ii.  247,  151.  3  Hcning,  ii.  315,  316. 

*  Chalmers  says,  1675 ;  an  error.        4  Ibid.  539. 


CONTESTS  WITH   THE   INDIANS. 

England.1     To  produce  an  insurrection,  nothing  was  CHAP 
Wanting  but  an  excuse  for  appearing  in  arms.  ~~ X 

The  causes  which  had  driven  the  Indians  of  New  *674 
England  to  despair,  acted  with  equal  force  on  the 
natives  of  Virginia.  The  English  had  at  first  seemed 
to  occupy  no  more  than  the  skirts  of  the  bay.  By 
degrees  they  had  explored  the  interior ;  the  remote 
mountains  had  become  an  object  of  curiosity;2  and  a 
little  band  of  adventurers  had  at  length  crossed  the 
first  range  of  mountains,  and,  descending  into  the 
valley  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  had  examined  the  heart  of 
Virginia,  and  proclaimed  the  beauty  of  the  lands 
which  form  a  succession  of  the  most  picturesque 
valleys  in  the  world.3  How  could  jealousies  fail  to  be 
excited  ? 

The  Seneca  Indians,  a  tribe  of  the  Five  Nations,  had  1674 
driven  the  Susquehannahs  from  their  abode  at  the 
nead  of  the  Chesapeake  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Piscata- 
ways  on  the  Potomac;4  and  Maryland  had  become 
involved  in  a  war  with  the  Susquehannahs  and  their 
confederates.5  Murders  had  been  committed  on  the  1675 
soil  of  Virginia,  and  had  been  avenged  by  the  militia 
on  the  borders.6  As  dangers  increased,  the  River  Po- 
tomac was  guarded  ;  and  a  body  of  Virginians,  under 
the  command  of  John  Washington,  the  great  grand- 
father of  George  Washington,  himself  perhaps  a  sur- 
veyor, who  had  emigrated  from  the  north  of  England 
to  America  eighteen  years  before,  and  had  planted 
himself  as  a  farmer  in  the  county  of  Westmoreland, 
crossed  the  river  to  assist  the  people  of  Maryland 7 

'  Beverley,  66.  5  Bacon's    Laws    of    Maryland, 

2  Hening,  i.  281.  1674,  c.  xxvii.  and  xxviii. 

3  Beverley,  62,  63.  6  T.  M.'s  Account,  8. 

4  T.  M.'s   Beginning,  Progress,  7  A.  Cotton's    Account    of   our 
and  Conclusion  of  Bacon's  Rebel-  Late  Troubles  in  Virginia,  p.  3. 
.ion,  p. !). 


216  CONTESTS  WITH  THE  INDIANS. 

CHAP,  in  besieging  the  common  enemy.     The  warfare  was 

-^ v~  conducted  with  vengeful  passions.     When  six  of  the 

1075.  hostile  chieftains  presented  themselves  as  messengers 

to  treat  of  a  reconciliation,  in  the  blind  fury  of  the 

moment  they  were  murdered.1 

The  outrage  was  rebuked  by  Berkeley  with  abrupt 
energy.  The  old  Cavalier  declared,  "  If  they  had 
killed  my  father  and  my  mother,  and  all  my  friends, 
yet  if  they  had  come  to  treat  of  peace,  they  ought  to 
have  gone  in  peace."2  The  monopoly  of  the  beaver 
trade  in  Virginia3  is  also  said  to  have  prevailed  on  the 
avarice  of  the  governor  to  favor  the  Indians.4 
1675  Meantime  the  natives,  having  escaped  from  their  fort, 
1676.  roamed  by  stealth  from  plantation  to  plantation,  from 
the  vicinity  of  Mount  Vernon  to  the  Falls  of  James 
River,  carrying  terror  to  every  grange  in  the  province; 
murdering,  in  blind  fury,  till  their  passions  were 
glutted  ;  and  for  each  one  of  their  chiefs  ten  of  the 
English  had  been  slain.  Now,  according  to  their  wild 
superstitions,  would  the  souls  of  their  great  men  repose 
pleasantly  in  the  shades  of  death. 

Proposals  of  peace  were  renewed  by  the  Susque- 
hannahs  and  their  confederates.  The  proposals  were 
rejected.  The  Indians,  subject  to  Virginia,  begin  to 
assert  independence.  The  horrors  of  insecurity  visit 
every  log-house  on  the  frontier ;  the  plantations  are 
laid  waste  ;  death  ranges  the  land  under  the  hideous 
forms  of  savage  cruelty.  The  spirit  that  favored 
popular  liberty,  awakes  to  demand  the  natural  right 


1  Burwell  Account  of  Bacon  and  3  Hening,  ii.  20,  124,  140. 
Ingram's  Rebellion,  first  printed  in  4  T.  M.'s  Account,  p.  11.    u  Pas  - 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xi.  27,  &c.     Re-  sion    and    avarice,    to    which    the 
printed  by  P.  Force  in  1835.     So,  governor  was    more   than   a  little 
too,  Cotton,  p.  3.  addicted." 

2  T.  M.'s  Account,  p.  12. 


NATHANIEL   BACON,  THE   POPULARLY   INCLINED.  217 

of  self-defence.     The  people    despise    the  system  of  CHAP. 
defence  by  forts,1  which  can  so  easily  be  avoided,  and  — -v-L. 
which  are  maintained  at  a  vast  and  useless  charge.  l676 
With   Bacon    for   their   leader,    they  demand  of  the 
governor  leave  to  rise  and  protect  themselves. 

Permission  was  withheld  ;  for  should  Berkeley  con- 
ft  ss  errors  of  judgment  so  glaring,  that  they  could  be 
discerned  by  the  common  people,  whom  the  royalists 
had  ever  "counted  more  than  half  blind?"2  The 
influence  of  the  people  could  not  countervail  the  in- 
terests of  colonial  courtiers,  who  derived  emoluments 
from  solitary  abuses  ;  and,  as  the  elective  franchise 
was  virtually  cancelled,  it  was  in  vain  that  the  dis- 
contented party  constituted  much  the  greater  number ; 
there  was  but  fresh  indignation  at  misspent  entreaties.3 

The  governor  distrusted  Nathaniel  Bacon,  because 
he  was  "  popularly  inclined."4  A  native  of  England, 
born  during  the  contests  between  the  parliament  and 
the  king,  nursed  amidst  the  convulsive  struggles  occa- 
sioned by  the  democratic  revolution,  well  educated  in 
a  period  when  every  active  mind  had  been  awakened 
to  a  consciousness  of  popular  rights  and  popular  power, 
— he  had  not  yielded  the  love  of  freedom  to  the  enthu- 
siasm of  royalty.  Possessing  a  pleasant  address  and  a 
powerful  elocution,  he  had  rapidly  risen  to  distinction 
in  Virginia.  Quick  of  apprehension,  brave,  choleric, 
yet  discreet  in  action,5  the  young  and  wealthy  planter 
carried  to  the  banks  of  the  James  River  the  liberal 


1  Hening,  ii.  326 — 336.  5  «  Though    but  a  young  man, 

2  Burwell  Account,  32.  he    was    master  of  those   endow- 

3  Bland,  in  Burk,  ii.  248.     Bur-  ments  which  constitute  a  complete 
well  Account,  32, 33.    The  Review  man,  wisdom  to  apprehend  and  dis- 
Breviarie   by   Jeffries.     Berry   and  cretion  to   chuse."       Burwell   Ac- 
Morrison,  in  Burk,  ii.  250.  count,  34.  Compare  Jefferson's  opm- 

4  Burwell  Account,   33.      Burk,  ion,  prefixed  to  T.  M.'s  Account 
ii.  163,  247. 

VOL.    II.  28 


218  THE   GRAND  REBELLION    IN  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  principles  which  he  had  gathered  from  English  expe- 

— ' — -  rience.     The  sect  of  the  Puritans  gained  no  power  in 

1676    Virginia  ;  the  ideas  which  the  Puritans  had  generated, 

gradually  penetrating  the  English  mind,  were  readily 

received  in  the  wilds  of  the  Old  Dominion  ;  for  they 

were   but   the   ideas   which    the   instinct   ol    human 

freedom  had  already  whispered  to  every  planter,  and 

which  naturally  sprung  up  amidst  the  equalities  of  the 

wilderness.     Bacon  was   resolved   on    action.     Were 

another  white  man  murdered,  he  would  take  up  arms 

against  the  Indians,  even  with  no  commission  but  his 

sword ;  and  news  was  soon  brought  that  his  own  men 

had  been  slain  on  his  plantation,  near  the  scenes  where 

the  James  River  leaps  into  the  lowlands,  and  the  city 

of  Richmond  towers  above  the  unrivalled  magnificence 

April,  of  flood  and  vale.     Men  flocked  together  tumultuous- 

ly,  running  in  troops  from  one  plantation  to  another 

without  a  head.1     The  government  had  ceased  to  be 

April   revered.    The  council  was  divided.    Five  hundred  men 

20 

1676.  were  soon  under  arms  ;  the  common  voice  proclaimed 
Bacon  the  leader  of  the  enterprise,  and  his  command- 
ing abilities  gave  the  ascendency  to  the  principles 
which  he  advocated,  and  the  party  which  he  espoused. 
Moderation  on  the  part  of  the  government  would 
still  have  secured  peace.  Sober  men  in  Virginia  were 
of  opinion  that  a  few  concessions — the  secure  posses- 
sion of  land,  the  liberties  of  free-born  subjects  of 
England,  a  diminution  of  the  public  expenses,  a  tax  on 
real  estate  rather  than  on  polls  alone — would  have 
quieted  the  colony.2  The  real  causes  of  the  insur- 

1  Beverley,  68.  the  letter  waa  one  of  the  victims 

2  Eland's    Letter   to    Berne,    in    of  the  rebellion.    Hening,  li.  35ft 
Burk,  ii.  248,  249.    The  writer  of     T.  M.'s  Account,  24. 


THE   GRAND  REBELLION  IN  VIRGINIA.  219 

rection  lay  in  the  oppression  of  the  navigation  acts,  CHAP. 

indignation  at  colonial  tyranny,  and  the  rising  passion  ~ 

for  self-government.  1676 

Hardly  had  Bacon  begun  to  march  against  the  In-  ApriL 
dians,  when  Berkeley,  yielding  to  the  instigations  of  an 
aristocratic  faction,  proclaimed  him  and  his  followers 
rebels,  and  levied  troops  to  pursue  them.  "  Those  of 
estates  obeyed"1  the  summons  to  disperse.  Bacon, 
with  a  small  but  faithful  band,  continued  his  expedi- 
tion, while  a  new  insurrection  compelled  Berkeley 
to  return  to  Jamestown.  The  lower  counties  had 
risen  in  arms,  and,  directing  their  hatred  against  the 
old  assembly,  to  which  they  ascribed  their  griefs, 
demanded  its  "  immediate  dissolution."2 

With  the  whole  mass  of  the  people  against  him,  the 
haughty  Cavalier  was  constrained  to  yield.  The  as- 
sembly, which  had  become  odious  by  its  long  duration, 
the  selfishness  of  its  members,  and  its  diminution  of 
popular  freedom,  was  dissolved  ;  writs  for  a  new  elec- 
tion were  issued  ;  and  Bacon,  returning  in  triumph 
from  his  Indian  warfare,  was  unanimously  elected  a 
burgess  from  Henrico  county.3 

In  the  choice  of  this  assembly,  the  late  disfranchise- 
ment  of  freemen  was  little  regarded.4  A  majority  of 
the  members  returned  were  "  much  infected "  with 
the  principles  of  Bacon;5  and  their  speaker,  Thomas 
Godwin,  was  notoriously  a  friend  to  all  "  the  rebellion 
and  treason  which  distracted  Virginia."6  In  the  midst 
of  contradictory  testimony  on  the  character  of  the  insur- 


1  T.  M.'s  Account,  11.    Compare  4  Review,  in  Burk,  ii.  251  and 
Burwell  Account,  34,  35.     T.  M.  260. 

derived  his  statement  from  Bacon  5  Justification    of  Berkeley,    in 

himself.  Burk,  ii.  260. 

2  Review,  in  Burk,  ii.  250.  6  Hening,  ii.  365  and  557 

3  T.  It's  Account,  11, 12. 


220  ACTS  OF  BACON'S  ASSEMBLY. 

CHAP,  gents,  the-  acts  of  the  assembly  furnish  the  highest 

historical  evidence,  and  must  be  taken  as  paramount 

\676.  authority  on  the  purposes  of  "  the  Grand  Rebellion  in 
Virginia." 

The  late  expenditures  of  public  money  had  not 
been  accounted  for.1  High  debates  arose  on  the 
wrongs  of  the  indigent,  who  were  oppressed  by  taxes 
alike  unequal  and  exorbitant.2  The  monopoly  of  the 
Indian  trade  was  suspended.3  A  compromise  with 
the  insurgents  was  effected  ;  on  the  one  hand,  Bacon 
acknowledged  his  error  in  acting  without  a  commis- 
sion,4 and  the  assemblies  of  disaffected  persons  were 
censured  as  acts  of  mutiny  and  rebellion ; 5  on  the 
other  hand,  Bacon  was  appointed  commander-in-chief,8 
to  the  universal  satisfaction  of  the  people,  who  made 
the  town  ring  with  their  joyous  acclamations,  and 
hailed  "  the  darling  of  their  hopes  "  as  the  appointed 
defender  of  Virginia.7  The  church  aristocracy  was 
broken  up  by  limiting  the  term  of  office  of  the  vestry- 
men to  three  years,  and  giving  the  election  of  them  to 
the  freemen  of  each  parish.8  The  elective  franchise 
was  restored  to  the  freemen  whom  the  previous  as- 
sembly had  disfranchised  ;  and,  as  "  false  returns  of 
sheriffs  had  endangered  the  peace,"  the  purity  of 
elections  was  guarded  by  wholesome  penalties.9  The 
arbitrary  annual  assessments,  hitherto  made  by  county 
magistrates,  irresponsible  to  the  people,  were  pro- 
hibited ;  the  Virginians  insisted  on  the  exclusive  right 
of  taxing  themselves,  and  made  provision  for  the 
county  levy, — it  was  a  radical  measure,  which  inde- 

1  Compare  Culpepper,  in  Chal-        5  Hening,  ii.  352. 
mere,  356.  6  Ibid.  ii.  349. 

2  T.  M.'s  Account,  1&  ?  Burwell  Account,  36. 

3  Hening,  ii.  350.  8  Hening,  ii.  356. 
«  Ibid.  ii.  543,  544.  »  Ibid.  ii.  357. 


ACTS  OF  BACON'S  ASSEMBLY.  221 

pendent  Virginia  has  not  yet  imitated, — by  the  equal  CHAP 
vote  of  their  own  representatives.  The  fees  of  the 
governor,  in  cases  of  probate  and  administration,  were 
curtailed  ;  the  unequal  immunities  of  councillors  were 
abrogated;1  the  sale  of  wines  and  ardent  spirits 
was  absolutely  prohibited,  if  not  at  Jamestown,  yet 
otherwise  through  the  whole  country;2  two  of  the 
magistrates,  notorious  for  raising  county  taxes  for  their 
private  gains,  were  disfranchised ;  and  finally,  that 
there  might  be  no  room  for  future  reproach  or  discord, 
all  past  derelictions  were  covered  under  the  mantle 
of  a  general  amnesty.3  The  acts  of  this  assembly 
manifest  the  principles  of  Bacon ;  and  were  they  not 
principles  of  justice,  freedom,  and  humanity  ? 

The  measures  of  the  assembly  were  not  willingly 
conceded  by  Berkeley,  who  refused  to  sign  the  com- 
mission that  had  been  promised.4  Fearing  treachery, 
Bacon  secretly  withdrew,  to  recount  his  wrongs  to  the 
people ;  and  in  a  few  days  he  reappeared  in  the  city  at 
the  head  of  nearly  five  hundred  armed  men.5  Passion 
sustained  for  a  season  the  courage  of  the  old  Cavalier — 
advancing  to  meet  the  troops,  and  baring  his  breast,  he 
cried,  "A  fair  mark,  shoot." — "I  will  not,"  replied 
Bacon,  "  hurt  a  hair  of  your  head,  or  of  any  man's ; 
we  are  come  for  the  commission  to  save  our  lives  from 
the  Indians."6  When  passion  had  subsided,  Berkeley 
yielded.  The  commission  was  issued  ;  the  governor 
united  with  the  burgesses  and  council  in  transmitting 
to  England  warm  commendations  of  the  zeal,  loyalty, 

1  Hening,  ii.  357,  358,  359.  4  Correct  Burk,  ii.  167,  168,  by 

2  Ibid.     ii.    361.      '<  Ordinaries  p.  251,  and  Burwell  Account,  35, 
to    sell    and    utter    man's    meate,  36,  and  by  T.  M.'s  Account,  15. 
norse-meate,  beer,  and  syder,  but  "Governor's  generosity,   wheedles 
no  other  strong  drink  whatsoever."  to  amuse  and  circumvent,"  &c. 
James  City   formed  an  exception.  5  Hening,  ii.  380,  says  600. 

3  Hening,  it  363,  364.  «  T.  M.'s  Account,  17. 


222  THE   GRAND  REBELLION   IN   VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  and  patriotism  of  Bacon,  and  the  ameliorating  legisla- 
^-v^L,  tion  of  the  assembly  was  ratified.     That  better  legis- 
June   lotion  was  completed,  according  to  the  new  style  of 
24,     computation,  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,1  1676,  just  one 
hundred  years,  to  a  day,  before  the  congress  of  the 
United  States,  adopting  the  declaration  which  had  been 
framed  by  a  statesman  of  Virginia,  who,  like  Bacon,  was 
"  popularly  inclined,"  began  a  new  era  in  the  history 
of  man.     The  eighteenth  century  in  Virginia  was  the 
child  of  the  seventeenth ;  and  Bacon's  rebellion,  with 
the   corresponding  scenes  in  Maryland,  and  Carolina, 
and  New  England,  was  the  early  harbinger  of  Amer- 
ican independence  and  American  nationality. 

A  momentary  joy  pervaded  the  colony.  Encouraged 
by  the  active  energy  of  Bacon,  men  scoured  the  forests 
and  the  swamps,  wherever  an  Indian  ambush  could 
lie  concealed.  Security  dawned  ;  industry  began  to 
resume  its  wonted  toils ;  when,  just  as  the  little  army 
was  preparing  to  march  against  the  enemy,  the  gov- 
ernor violated  the  amnesty.  Repairing  to  Gloucester 
county,  the  most  populous  and  most  loyal  in  Virginia, 
he  summoned  a  convention  of  the  inhabitants.  "  The 
whole  convention  "  disrelished  his  proposals ;  esteeming 
Bacon  the  defender  of  their  countrymen.9  But  the 
petulant  pride  of  the  Cavalier  could  not  be  appeased ; 
against  the  advice  of  the  most  loyal  county  in  Virginia, 
Bacon  was  once  more  proclaimed  a  traitor.3 

But  when  did  Virginia  ever  desert  her  patriot  citi- 
zens? The  news  was  conveyed  to  the  camp  by 
Drummond,  the  former  governor  of  North  Carolina, 
and  by  Richard  Lawrence,4  a  pupil  of  Oxford,  distin- 

1  Henina 'i.363.    "June  twenty-  3  Burwell   Account,  39.     Burk, 

fourth,"  old  style ;  that  is,  July  4,  iL  61.    Beverley,  71. 

1676.  4  T.  M.'s  Account,  15.    Burwell 

a  Burwell  Account,  38.  Account,  79. 


THE  GRAND  REBELLION  IN  VIRGINIA.  223 

guished  from  the  university  for  learning  and  sobriety,  CHAP. 
a  man  of  deep  reflection  and  of  energy  of  purpose,  «-^L 
"  It  vexes  me  to  the  heart,"  said  Bacon,  "  that  while  1670. 
I  am  hunting  the  wolves  and  tigers  that  destroy  our 
lambs,  I  should  myself  be  pursued  as  a  savage.     Shall 
persons  wholly  devoted  to  their  king  and  country — 
men  hazarding  their  lives  against  the  public  enemy — 
deserve  the  appellation  of  rebels  and  traitors  ?     The 
whole  country  is  witness  to  our  peaceable  behavior. 
But  those  in  authority,  how  have  they  obtained  their 
estates  ?      Have    they    not    devoured    the    common 
treasury  ?     What   arts,   what   sciences,  what   schools 
of  learning,   have   they  promoted  ?     I  appeal   to  the 
king  and  parliament,  where  the  cause  of  the  people 
will  be  heard  impartially." 1 

Meanwhile,  addressing  himself  to  the  people  of 
Virginia,  he  invited  all,  by  their  love  of  country, 
their  love  to  their  wives  and  children,  to  gather  in  a 
convention,  and  rescue  the  colony  from  the  tyranny 
of  Berkeley.  The  call  was  answered ;  none  were  Aug. 
willing  to  sit  idle  in  the  time  of  general  calamity.  ^ 
The  most  eminent  men  in  the  colony  came  together 
at  Middle  Plantations,  now  Williamsburgh ;  Bacon 
excelled  them  all  in  arguments ;  the  public  mind 
seemed  to  be  swayed  by  his  judgment,  and  an  oath 
was  taken  by  the  .whole  convention,  to  join  him 
against  the  Indians,  and,  if  possible,  to  prevent  a  civil 
war.  Should  the  governor  persevere  in  his  obstinate 
self-will,  they  promise  to  protect  Bacon  against  every 
armed  force ;  and  after  long  and  earnest  arguments, 
held  before  the  people  in  the  open  air  from  noon  till 
midnight,  it  was  resolved  that,  even  if  troops  should 

,  i  Burwell  Account,  39—41. 


224  THE   GRAND  REBELLION  IN  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  arrive    from   England.   Virginia    would   resist  till  an 

XIV 

-~^-  appeal  could  reach  the  king  in  person.1 

1676.  Fortified  by  the  vote  of  the  people,  Bacon  proceeded 
against  the  Indians,  while  Berkeley  withdrew  beyond 
the  Chesapeake,  and,  by  promises  of  booty,  endeavored 
to  collect  an  army  on  the  eastern  shore,  and  among 
the  seamen  in  the  harbor. 

The  condition  of  Bacon  and  his  followers  became 
critical.  Drummond,  who  was  versed  in  the  early 
history  of  Virginia,  advised  that  Berkeley  should  be 
deposed,  and  Sir  Henry  Chichely  substituted  as  gov- 
ernor. The  counsel  was  disliked.  "  Do  not  make  so 
strange  of  it,"  said  Drummond,  "  for  I  can  show,  from 
ancient  records,  that  such  things  have  been  done 
in  Virginia."2  Besides,  the  period  of  ten  years,  for 
which  Berkeley  was  appointed,  had  already  expired.3 
After  much  discussion,  it  was  agreed,  that  the  retreat 
of  the  governor  should  be  taken  for  an  abdication ;  and 
Bacon,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  council,  with 
four  of  his  colleagues,  issued  writs  for  a  representative 
convention  of  the  people,  by  which  the  affairs  of  the 
colony  should  be  managed.  Virginia  was  revolutionized 
by  the  act  of  its  own  inhabitants,  and  government  was 
instituted  on  the  basis  of  popular  power.  The  wives  of 
Virginia  statesmen  shared  the  enthusiasm.  "The  child 
that  is  unborn,"  said  Sarah  Drummond,  "  a  notorious 
and  wicked  rebel,"  "shall  have  cause  to  rejoice  for  the 
good  that  will  come  by  the  rising  of  the  country." 4 
"  Should  we  overcome  the  governor,"  said  Ralph 

1  Burwell      Account,      41 — 46.    and  other  incidents  relating  to  Ba- 
Burk,  ii.   261.    T.   M.'s  Account,    con's   rebellion    from    unpublished 
p.  21,  less  distinct    Cotton,  p.  7,    records. 

very  clearly  told.    Beverley,  73,  74.        3  Bonds,  &c.  p.  107.     Berkeley, 

2  Bonds,  &c.  from  1677  to  1682,    in  Chalmers,  calls  his  government 
p.  106,  in  office  of  General  Court    a  settlement  of  ten  years. 

at  Richmond,  where  I  copied  this        4  Bonds,  &c.  p.  105. 


TiIE   GRAND   REBELLION   IN   VIRGINIA.  22o 

Weldinge,  "  we  must  expect  a  greater  power  from  CHAP. 
England,  that  would  certainly  be  our  ruin."  Sarah  — •*•»- 
Drummond  remembered  that  England  was  divided  l676 
into  hostile  factions  for  the  duke  of  York  and  the 
duke  of  Monmouth.  Taking  from  the  ground  a 
small  stick,  she  broke  it  in  twain,  adding,  "  I  fear  the 
power  of  England  no  more  than  a  broken  straw." 
The  relief  from  the  hated  navigation  acts  seemed 
certain.  Now  "  we  can  build  ships,"  it  was  urged, 
"  and  like  New  England  trade  to  any  part  of  the 
world."1  The  stout-hearted  woman  would  not  suffer 
a  throb  of  fear  in  her  bosom.  In  the  greatest  perils 
to  which  her  husband  was  exposed,  she  confidently 
exclaimed,  "  We  shall  do  well  enough ; "  continuing  to 
encourage  the  people  and  inspire  the  soldiers  with  her 
own  enthusiasm.2 

After  the  lapse  of  a  century,  the  same  passions  and 
the  same  legislation  returned.  The  early  legislators 
of  America  were  near  to  nature,  and  set  natural 
precedents.  Connecticut  had  offered  a  model  for  a 
popular  government;  Virginia  gave  an  example  of  a 
popular  revolution.  There  is  an  analogy  between 
early  American  politics  and  tne  earliest  heroic  poems. 
Both  were  spontaneous,  and  both  had  the  vitality  of 
truth.  Long  as  natural  affection  endures,  the  poems 
of  Homer  will  be  read  with  delight :  long  as  freedom 

O  >  O 

lives  on  earth,  the  early  models  of  popular  legislation 
and  action  in  America  will  be  admired.  The  present 
effort  wins  new  interest  from  its  failure.  The  flag  of 
freedom  was  unfurled  only  to  be  stained  with  blood  ; 
the  accents  of  liberty  were  uttered  only  to  be  choked 
hy  executions. 

*  Compare  Bonds,  &c.  pp.  110  and  89.          2  Bonds,  &c.  p.  89. 

VOL.  ii.  29 


226  THE   GRAND  REBELLION  IN   VIRGINIA. 

CHAP.      Meantime  Sir  William  Berkeley  collected  in   Ac- 

XIV 

^v^L  comack  a  large  crowd  of  followers ;  men  of  a  base 
1676.  anci  cowardly  disposition,  allured  by  the  passion  for 
plunder.1  Civil  wars  were  one  of  the  means  of 
enfranchising  the  serfs  of  England.  Berkeley  prom- 
ised freedom  to  the  servants  of  the  insurgents,  if  they 
would  rally  under  his  banner.  The  English  vessels 
in  the  harbors  naturally  joined  his  side.  With  a  fleet 
of  five  ships  and  ten  sloops,  attended  by  royalists,  a 
rabble  of  covetous  hirelings,  and  a  horde  of  Indians,9 
the  Cavalier  sailed  for  Jamestown,  where  he  landed 
Sept.  without  opposition.  Entering  the  town,  he  fell  on  his 
knees,  returning  thanks  to  God  for  his  safe  arrival ; 
and  again  proclaimed  Bacon  and  his  party  traitors  and 
rebels. 

The  cry  resounded  through  the  forests  for  "  the 
countrymen  "  to  come  down.  "  Speed,"  it  was  said, 
"  or  we  shall  all  be  made  slaves — man,  woman,  and 
child."  "Your  sword,"  said  Drummond  to  Lawrence, 
"  is  your  commission  and  mine  too ;  the  sword  must 
end  it ;  " 3  and  both  prepared  for  resistance. 

Returning  from  a  successful  expedition,  and  dis- 
banding his  troops,  Bacon  had  retained  but  a  small 
body  of  men  for  his  personal  defence,  when  the  tidings 
of  the  fleet  from  Accomack  surprised  him  in  his  retire- 
ment. His  eloquence  inspired  his  few  followers  with 
courage.  "  With  marvellous  celerity "  they  hasten 
towards  their  enemy.  On  the  way  they  secure  as 
hostages  the  wives  of  royalists  who  were  with 
Berkeley,  and  they  soon  appear  under  arms  before 

1  All  accounts  concur.    Berke-  been  pillage.     Review,  in  Burk,  ii 

ley's  Vindication,  in  Burk,  ii.  262,  252.     Burwell  Account,  47,  48 

"Taking  any  thing  from  the  rebels,  2  Bonds,  &c.  113, 114. 

imputed  a  heinous  crime."     The  3  Ibid.  110,  113. 
complaint  implies   that  there  had 


THE   GRAND   REBELLION   IN   ViAGINIA.  227 

Jamestown.      The   trumpet    sounds    defiance ;    and,  CHAP 

under  the  mild  light  of  a   September  moon,  a  rude  - 

intrenchment  is  thrown  up.  Civil  war  was  begun. 
Night,  the  season,  nature,  freedom,  all,  demanded 
peace.  If  the  New  World  could  not  create  friendship 
among  the  outcasts  from  Europe,  were  not  the  woods 
wide  enough  to  hide  men  from  each  other's  anger  ? 

Victory  did  not  hesitate.  The  followers  of  Berke- 
ley were  too  cowardly  to  succeed  in  a  sally ; ]  and 
to  secure  plunder  they  made  grounds  to  desert.2  No 
considerable  service  was  done,  except  by  the  seamen. 
What  availed  the  passionate  fury  and  desperate 
courage  of  a  brave  and  irascible  old  man  ?  The 
royalists  deserted  the  town,  and  escaped  in  their  fleet 
by  night. 

On  the  morning  after  the  retreat,  Bacon  entered 
the  little  capital  of  Virginia.  There  lay  the  ashes  of 
Gosnold ;  there  the  gallant  Smith  had  told  the  tale  of 
his  adventures  of  romance ;  there  English  wives  had 
been  offered  for  sale  to  eager  colonists ;  there  Poca- 
hontas  had  sported  in  the  simplicity  of  innocence. 
For  nearly  seventy  years,  it  had  been  the  abode  of 
Anglo-Saxons.  But  could  Bacon  retain  possession  of 
the  town  ?  And  should  he  abandon  it  as  a  strong-hold 
for  the  enemies  of  his  country  ?  The  rumor  prevailed 
that  a  party  of  royalists  from  the  northern  counties  was 
drawing  near.  In  a  council  of  war,  it  was  resolved  to 
burn  Jamestown,  the  only  town  in  Virginia,  that  no 
shelter3  might  remain  for  an  enemy.  Should  troops 
arrive  from  England,  every  man  was  ordered  to  retire 
into  the  wilderness.4  Tyrants  would  hardly  chase  the 

1  Burwell  Account,  53,  54.  rogues  should  harbor  no  men  there 

a  Review,  in  Burk,  iL  252.  "  To  prevent  a  future  siege." 
3  For  the  motive,  Cotton,  p.  8,        *  T.  M.'s  Account,  p.  21. 
and  T.  M.'s  Account,  p.  21.    «  The 


THE   GRAND  REBELLION  IN    VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  planters  into  their  scattered  homes,  among  the  woods 

And,  as  the  shades  of  night  descended,   the  village 

1676  Was  set  on  fire.     Two  of  the  best  houses  belonged  to 

o 

Lawrence  and  Drummond ;  each  of  them,  with  his 
own  hand,  kindled  the  flames  that  were  to  lay  his 
dwelling  in  ashes.1  The  little  church,  the  oldest  in 
the  Dominion,  the  newly-erected  statehouse,  were 
consumed.  In  the  darkness  of  night,  the  conflagration 
blazed  high  in  the  air,  and  was  seen  by  the  fleet  that 
lay  at  anchor  twenty  miles  below  the  town.2  Virginia 
offered  its  only  village  as  a  victim  for  its  freedom. 
Patriots  fired  their  own  houses,  lest  they  should  harbor 
enemies  to  their  country.  The  ruins  of  the  tower  of 
the  church,  and  the  memorials  in  the  adjacent  grave- 
yard, are  all  that  now  mark  for  the  stranger  the  pen- 
insula of  Jamestown.3 

From  the  smoking  ruins,  Bacon  hastened  to  meet 
the  royalists  from  the  Rappahannock.  No  engage- 
ment ensued  ;  the  troops  in  a  body  joined  the  patriot 
party  ;  and  Brent,  their  royalist  leader,  was  left  at  the 
mercy  of  the  insurgents.  Even  the  inhabitants  of 
Gloucester  gave  pledges  of  adhesion.  Nothing  re- 
mained but  to  cross  the  bay,  and  revolutionize  the 
eastern  shore. 

The  little  army  of  Bacon  had  been  exposed,  by  night, 
to  the  damp  dews  of  the  lowlands;  and  the  evening  air 
of  the  balmy  autumn  was  laden  with  death.  Bacon 
himself  suddenly  sickened  ;  his  vital  energies  vainly 
struggled  with  the  uncertain  disease,4  and  on  the  first 

i  T.  M.'s  Account,  21.  ning  rashly  ventures  the  conjee- 
s' Review,  in  Burk,  ii.  252,  and  ture,  ii.  374.  Yet  in  1680,  Hening, 
Burwell  Account,  54.  ii.  460,  his  death  is  called  "  infa- 
3  Hawks's  Contributions,  20.  mous  and  exemplary;"  and,  in 
*  Was  Bacon  poisoned?  He-  1677,  Hening,  ii.  374,  it  is  called 


THE   GRAND   REBELLION   IN   VIRGINIA.  229 

day  of  October  he  died.     Seldom  has  a  political  loader  CHAP. 
been  more  honored  by  his  friends    "  Who  is  there  now,"  ~^ — 
said  they,  "  to  plead  our  cause  ?     His  eloquence  could  I67(j 
animate  the  coldest  hearts ;    his  pen  and  sword  alike 
compelled  the  admiration  of  his  foes,  and  it  was  but 
their  own  guilt  that  styled  him  a  criminal.     His  name 
must  bleed  for  a  season  ;   but  when  time  shall  bring  to 
Virginia  truth  crowned  with  freedom,  and  safe  against 
danger,  posterity  shall  sound  his  praises."1 

An  uneducated  people  obeys  promptly  the  first  call 
to  action  for  freedom  ;  it  is  less  capable  of  union  and 
perseverance.  The  death  of  Bacon  left  his  party 
without  a  head.  A  series  of  petty  insurrections  fol- 
lowed ;  but  in  Robert  Beverley  the  royalists  found  an 
agent  superior  to  any  of  the  remaining  insurgents. 
The  ships  in  the  river  were  at  his  disposal,  and  a 
continued  warfare  in  detail  restored  the  supremacy  of 
the  governor. 

Thomas  Hansford,  a  native  Virginian,  was  the  first 
partisan  leader  whom  Beverley  surprised.  Young, 
gay,  and  gallant,  nursed  among  the  forests  of  the 
Old  Dominion,  fond  of  amusement,  not  indifferent  to 
pleasure,  impatient  of  restraint,  keenly  sensitive  to 
honor,  fearless  of  death,  and  passionately  fond  of  the 

land  that  had  given  him  birth,  he  was  a  true  repre- 

No» 
sentative  of  the  Virginia  character.     Summoned  before     13. 

"just,    and    most   exemplary."     In  "  Then  how  can  it  be  counted  for  a  sin. 

Hening,   ii.   426,   in  a   subsequent  Though  Death,  nay,  though  myself  had 

order  from  England,  «  all  waies  of  To     {£  t£e  fShaft  ?   We  honor  all, 

force  and  designe      are  sanctioned.  That  lend  a  hand  unto  a  traitor's  fall." 
An  old  poet  in  the  Burwell  Ac- 
count, p.  58,  writes-  l  IQ  ^  M  chronicle,  p.  59— 

"Virginia's  foes,  dreading  their  just  desert,  "While  none  shall  dare  his  obsequies  to 
Corrupted  Death  by  Paracelsian  art  s;n~ 

Him  to  destroy."  jn  deserved  measures,  until  time  shall  oring 

.  „.    ,  Truth  crowned  with  freedom,  and  from 

And  a  royalist,  in  reply,  p.  59,  does  danger  free, 

not  hesitate  to  write —  To  sound  his  praises  to  posterity." 


230  THE  GRAND  REBELLION  IN  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  the  vindictive  Berkeley,  he  disdained  to  shrink  from 
— ~v~  the  malice  of  destiny,  and  Berkeley  condemned  him  to 
1676  he  hanged.  Neither  at  his  trial  nor  afterwards  did  he 
show  any  diminution  of  fortitude.  He  demanded  no 
favor,  but  that  "  he  might  be  shot  like  a  soldier,  and 
not  hanged  like  a  dog."  "  You  die,"  it  was  answered, 
"  not  as  a  soldier,  but  as  a  rebel."  During  the  short 
respite  after  sentence,  his  soul  was  filled  with  the 
prospect  of  immortality.  Reviewing  his  life,  he 
expressed  penitence  for  every  sin.  What  was  charged 
on  him  as  rebellion,  he  denied  to  have  been  a  sin. 
"  Take  notice,"  said  he,  as  he  came  to  the  gibbet, 
"  I  die  a  loyal  subject  and  a  lover  of  my  country." 
That  country  was  Virginia.  Hansford  perished,  the 
first  native  of  America  on  the  gallows,  a  martyr  to  the 
right  of  the  people  to  govern  themselves.1 

Taking  advantage  of  their  naval  superiority,  a  party 
of  royalists  entered  York  River,  and  surprised  the 
troops  that  were  led  by  Edmund  Cheesman  and 
Thomas  Wilford.  The  latter,  a  younger  son  of  a 
royalist  knight,  who  had  fallen  in  the  wars  for 
Charles  I.,  a  truly  brave  man,  and  now  by  his 
industry  a  successful  emigrant,  lost  an  eye  in  the 
skirmish.  "  Were  I  stark  blind,"  said  he,  "  the 
governor  would  afford  me  a  guide  to  the  gallows." 
When  Cheesman  was  arraigned  for  trial,  Berkeley  de 
manded,  "  Why  did  you  engage  in  Bacon's  designs  ?" 
Before  the  prisoner  could  frame  an  answer,  his  wife,  a 
young  woman,  stepped  forward: — "My  provocations" 
— such  were  her  words — "made  my  husband  join 
in  the  cause  for  which  Bacon  contended  ;  but  for  me, 
he  had  never  done  what  he  has  done.  Since  what  is 

1  Burwell  Account,  62.    Cotton,  9.    Hening,  iii.  567 


THE   GRAND   REBELLION  IN  VIRGINIA.  231 

done,"  she  added,  falling  on  her  knees,  "  was  done  by  CHAP 
my  means,  I  am  most  guilty ;  let  me  bear  the  punish-  — - ^ 
ment ;    let  me   be  hanged,   but   let   my  husband  be  1676 
pardoned."     She  spoke  truth :   but  the  governor  an- 
grily cried,  "Away!"  adding  reproach  to  the  purity  of 
her   nuptial    bed.     Proud   insolence !     As   if  woman 
would  die  for  one  she  had  dishonored ! 1 

As  the  power  of  Berkeley  increased,  his  passions 
were  whetted  by  the  opportunity  of  indulgence. 
Nothing  is  so  merciless  as  offended  pride ;  a  former 
affront  is  remembered  as  proof  of  weakness ;  and  it 
seeks  to  restore  self-esteem  by  a  flagrant  exercise  of 
recovered  power.  Avarice  also  found  delight  in  fines 
and  confiscations ;  no  sentiment  of  clemency  was 
tolerated.  From  fear  that  a  jury  would  bring  in 
verdicts  of  acquittal,  men  were  hurried  to  death  from 
courts  martial.2  "You  are  very  welcome,"  cried  the  |677 
exulting  Berkeley,  with  a  low  bow,  on  meeting  J^J- 
William  Drummond,  as  his  prisoner ;  "  1  am  more 
glad  to  see  you  than  any  man  in  Virginia  ;  you  shall 
be  hanged  in  half  an  hour."  The  patriot,  avowing 
boldly  the  part  he  had  acted,  was  condemned  at  one 
o'clock,  and  hanged  at  four.  His  children  and  wife 
were  driven  from  their  home,  to  depend  on  the 
charity  of  the  planters.3  At  length  it  was  deemed 
safe  to  resort  to  the  civil  tribunal,  where  the  judges 
proceeded  with  the  virulence  of  accusers.  Of  those 
who  put  themselves  on  trial,  none  escaped  being 
convicted  and  hanged.  A  panic  paralyzed  the  juries., 
there  was  in  most  men  so  much  guilt  or  fear.4  What 

1  Bunvell    Account,     64.      He-  ii.  370,  546,  558.    Burk,  ii.  201, 
rung,  ii.  375.     Cotton,  9.  263,  264,  266. 

2  True  Account,  in  Burk,  ii.  254.        4  True  Account,  in  Burk,  ii.  255 

3  Bonds,    &c.    pp.  87  and   111.  N.  B;    Let  the  reader  not  be  led 
Burwell    Account,    79.       Hening,  astray  by  the  very  ridiculous  error 


THE   GRAND  REBELLION   IN   VIRGINIA. 

°xivP'  ^ough  commissioners  arrived  with  a  royal  proclama- 

*- — ~  tion,  promising  pardon  to  all  but  Bacon?1    In  defiance 

l]ZJ'  °^  remonstrances>    executions  continued   till  twenty- 

29-     two  had   been   hanged.     Three  others   had   died  of 

cruelty  in  prison  ;    three  more  had  fled  before  trial  ; 

two  had   escaped  after  conviction.     More  blood  was 

shed  than,  on  the  action  of  our  present  system,  would 

be  shed   for   political  offences  in  a  thousand   years, 

"The  old  fool,"  said  the  kind-hearted  Charles  II.,  with 

truth,    "has   taken   away   more  lives   in  that  naked 

country,  than  I,  for  the  murder  of  my  father."     And 

in  a  public  proclamation  he  censured  the  conduct  of 

Berkeley,  as  contrary  to  his  commands  and  derogatory 

to  his  clemency.9     Nor  is  it  certain  when  the  carnage 

would    have   ended,    had    not   the    assembly,    newly 

Feb.    convened,    voted    an    address    "  that    the    governor 

would   spill  no   more    blood."      "  Had   we   let   him 

alone,  he  would  have  hanged  half  the  country,"  said 

the  member  from  Northampton  to  his  colleague  from 

Stafford.3 

The  memory  of  those  who  have  been  wronged  is 
always  pursued  by  the  ungenerous.  England,  am- 
bitious of  absolute  colonial  supremacy,  could  not 
render  justice  to  the  principles  by  which  Bacon  was 
Feb.  swayed.  No  printing-press  was  allowed  in  Virginia. 
To  speak  ill  of  Berkeley  or  his  friends,  was  punished 
by  whipping  or  a  fine ;  to  speak  or  write,  or  publish 
any  thing,  in  favor  of  the  rebels  or  the  rebellion,  was 
made  a  high  misdemeanor;  if  thrice  repeated,  was 

of  Burk,  ii.  200,  where  he  narrates  asserts  that  the  king  highly  ap- 

"the  acquittal  of  ten  in  one  day."  proved  of  Berkeley's  conduct  The 

Pure  fiction,  though  repeated  by  a  proclamation  must  be  allowed  the 

late  writer.  Compare  Burk,  ii.  255  highest  possible  authority  to  the 

and  263.  contrary. 

i  Hening,  ii.  428,  429.  3  T.  M.'s  Account,  24.    Honing 

»  Ibid.  429.     Oldmixon,  i.  257  ii.  545—558. 


RESULTS  OF  BACON'S  REBELLION. 


233 


evidence  of  treason.1  Is  it  strange  that  posterity  was  CHAP. 
for  more  than  a  hundred  years  defrauded  of  the  truth  ?  — ~ 
Every  accurate  account  of  the  insurrection  remained  1677- 
in  manuscript  till  the  present  century.2 

It  was  on  occasion  of  this  rebellion,  that  English 
troops  were  first  introduced  into  the  English  colonies 
in  America.  Their  support  was  burdensome.  After 
ihree  years  they  were  disbanded,  and  probably  mingled 
with  the  people.3 

With  the  returning  squadron  Sir  William  Berkeley 
sailed  for  England.  Guns  were  fired,  and  bonfires 
kindled  at  his  departure.4  Public  opinion  in  England 
censured  his  conduct  with  equal  severity ;  and  Lord 
Berkeley  used  to  say,  that  the  unfavorable  report  of 
the  commissioners  in  Virginia  caused  the  death  of  his 
brother.  It  took  place  soon  after  Sir  William's  arrival 
in  England,  before  he  had  had  an  opportunity  of 
waiting  on  the  king. 

The  results  of  Bacon's  rebellion  were  disastrous  for 
Virginia.      The    suppression    of  an    insurrection    fur- 
nished an  excuse  for  refusing  a  liberal  charter,  and 
conceding  nothing  more  than  a  patent,  containing  not  1676 
one  political  franchise.5     Freedom  in  Virginia  rested     10 
on  royal  favor,  and  was  measured  by  the  royal  will, 
except  so  far  as  the  common  law  protected   the  in- 
habitants in  the  rights  of  Englishmen.     The  form  of 
government  was  further  defined  by  royal  instructions6 
that   had    been    addressed    to  Berkeley.     Assemblies    Nor 
were  required  to  be  called  but  once  in  two  years,  and 
lo  sit  but  fourteen  days,  unless  for  special  reasons. 

1  Hening,  ii.  385,  386.  5  Burk,  ii.   App.  Ixi.      Hening, 

2  Compare  Walsh's  Appeal,  78.  ii.  532.     Beverley,  76. 

3  Chalmers,  351,  352.  6  Hening,  ii.    424—426,    where 

4  P.  Morryson,  in  Burk,  ii.  267.  they  are  printed  at  large. 

VOL.  ii.  30 


234  HISTORTr    OF  MARYLAND  ON  THE   RESTORATION. 

CHAP.  "  You  shall  take  care,"  said  the  king,  "  that  the 
-— v~  members  of  assembly  be  elected  only  by  freeholders." 
In  conformity  with  these  instructions,  all  the  acts 
of  Bacon's  Assembly,  except  perhaps  one  which 
permitted  the  enslaving  of  Indians,  and  which  was 
confirmed  and  renewed,  were  absolutely  repealed,1 
and  the  former  grievances  immediately  returned. 
The  private  levies,  unequal  and  burdensome,  were 
managed  by  men  who  combined  to  defraud ;  the 
public  revenues  were  often  misapplied  ;  each  church 
was  again  subjected  to  its  self-perpetuating  vestry; 
an  enormous  loss  had  been  sustained  by  the  insurrec 
tion  ;  and  the  burden  was  more  severely  felt  by  the 
poorer  classes,  because  the  elective  franchise  was 
circumscribed,  while  taxes  continued  to  be  levied  by 
the  poll.3  The  commissioners  sent  by  the  king  to 
inquire  into  the  condition  of  Virginia,  allowed  every 
district  to  present  its  afflictions.  The  happy  county 
of  Westmoreland,  the  county  of  which  John  Washing- 
ton was  a  burgess  and  a  magistrate,3  declared  that  it 
felt  no  grievances.4  In  other  counties  there  were  long 
reports  of  tyranny  and  rapine.  But  it  complaints 
were  heard  with  impartiality — if  the  rash  imprudence 
of  Berkeley  did  not  escape  rebuke — every  measure  of 
effectual  reform  was  considered  void,  and  every  aristo- 
cratic feature  that  had  been  introduced  into  legislation, 
was  perpetuated. 

While  the  restoration  had  thus  been  attended  by 
scenes  of  carnage  and  civil  war,  the  progress  of  Mary- 
land, under  the  more  generous  proprietary  government, 
was  tranquil  and  rapid.  Like  Virginia,  Maryland  was 

i  Hening,  ii.  380  ;  ii.  346,  404.  3  Hening,  ii.  250,  309,  330. 

1  Culpepper,  in  Chalmers,  355,        4  Chalmers,  338. 
356. 


HISTORY   OF  MARYLAND   ON   THE   RESTORATION.  235 

colony  of  planters ;  its  staple  was  tobacco,  and  its  CHAP. 
prosperity  was  equally  checked  by  the  pressure  of  >-— «L 
the  navigation  acts.  Like  Virginia,  it  possessed  no 
considerable  village ;  its  inhabitants  were  scattered 
among  the  woods  and  along  the  rivers ;  each  plan- 
tation was  a  little  world  within  itself,  and  legislation 
vainly  attempted  the  creation  of  towns  by  statute. 
Like  Virginia,  its  laborers  were  in  part  indented 
servants,  whose  term  of  service  was  limited  by  per- 
severing legislation;1  in  part  negro  slaves,  who  were 
employed  in  the  colony  from  an  early  period,  and 
whose  importation  was  favored  both  by  English 
cupidity  and  by  provincial  statutes.2  As  in  Virginia, 
the  appointing  power  to  nearly  every  office  in  the 
counties  as  well  as  in  the  province,  was  not  with  the 
people ;  and  the  judiciary  was  placed  beyond  their 
control.3  As  in  Virginia,  the  party  of  the  proprietary, 
which  possessed  the  government,  was  animated  by  a 
jealous  regard  for  prerogative,  and  by  the  royalist 
principles,  which  derive  the  sanction  of  authority  from 
the  will  of  Heaven.  As  in  Virginia,  the  taxes  levied 
by  the  county  officers  were  not  conceded  by  the  direct 
vote  of  the  people,  and  were,  therefore,  burdensome 
alike  from  their  excessive  amount  and  the  manner  of 
their  levy.4  But  though  the  administration  of  Mary- 
land did  not  favor  the  increasing  spirit  of  popular 
liberty,  it  was  marked  by  conciliation  and  humanity. 
To  foster  industry,  to  promote  union,  to  cherish  re- 
ligious peace, — these  were  the  honest  purposes  of 
Lord  Baltimore  during  his  long  supremacy. 


1  Bacon,  1661,  c.  x. ;  1662,  c.  vi.  4  This  is  in  part  inference  from 

2  Ibid.    1671,  c.  ii. ;    confirmed  the  laws  at  large.    Compare  T.  M.'a 
1672,  c.ii.;  renewed  Oct.  1692,  c.lii.  Account  of  Bacon's  Rebellion,  p. 

3  Macculloch's    Maryland,    155,  21.    An  important  passage. 
fee. 


236  HAPPINESS   AND   CANDOR  OF  MARYLAND. 

CHAP.       At  the  restoration,  the  authority  of  Philip  Caivert, 

-^v^  whom  the  proprietary  had  commissioned  as  his  deputy, 
was  promptly  and  quietly  recognized.  Fendall,  the 
former  governor,  who  had  obeyed  the  impulse  of  the 
popular  will  as  paramount  to  the  authority  of  Balti- 
more, was  convicted  of  treason.  His  punishment  was 
mild ;  a  wise  clemency  veiled  the  incipient  strife 

1361.  between  the  people  and  their  sovereign,  under  a 
general  amnesty.  Peace  was  restored,  but  Maryland 
was  not  placed  beyond  the  influence  of  the  ideas 
which  that  age  of  revolution  had  set  in  motion  ;  and 
the  earliest  opportunity  would  renew  the  strife. 

Yet  the  happiness  of  the  colony  was  enviable.  The 
persecuted  and  the  unhappy  thronged  to  the  domains 
of  the  benevolent  prince.  If  Baltimore  was,  in  one 
sense,  a  monarch — like  Miltiades  at  Chersonesus,  and 
other  founders  of  colonies  of  old — his  monarchy  was 
tolerable  to  the  exile  who  sought  for  freedom  and 
repose.  Numerous  ships  found  employment  in  his 
harbors.  The  white  laborer  rose  rapidly  to  the 
condition  of  a  free  proprietor ;  the  female  emigrant 
was  sure  to  improve  her  condition,  and  the  cheerful 
charities  of  home  gathered  round  her  in  the  New 
World.  Affections  expanded  in  the  wilderness,  where 
artificial  amusements  were  unknown.  The  planter's 
whole  heart  was  in  his  family ;  his  pride  in  the 
children  that  bloomed  around  him,  making  the  soli- 
tudes laugh  with  innocence  and  gayety. 

Emigrants    arrived    from   every   clime ;    and    the 

I66G.  colonial  legislature  extended  its  sympathies  to  many 
nations,  as  well  as  to  many  sects.  From  France 
came  Huguenots ;  from  Germany,  from  Holland,  from 
Sweden,  from  Finland,  I  believe  from  Piedmont,  the 
children  of  misfortune  sought  protection  under  the 


QUAKERS  IMPERFECTLY  TOLERATED.  237 

tolerant  sceptre  of  the  Roman  Catholic.      Bohemia  CHAP. 

XJV. 

itself,1  the  country  of  Jerome  and  of  Huss,  sent  forth  ^^> 
its  sons,  who  at  once  were  made  citizens  of  Maryland 
with  equal  franchises.  The  empire  of  justice  and 
numanity,  according  to  the  light  of  those  days,  had 
been  complete  but  for  the  sufferings2  of  the  people 
called  Quakers.  Yet  they  were  not  persecuted  for 
their  religious  worship,  which  was  held  publicly  and 
without  interruption.3  "  The  truth  was  received  with 
reverence  and  gladness  ; "  and  with  secret  satisfaction 
George  Fox  relates  that  members  of  the  legislature 
and  the  council,  persons  of  quality,  and  justices  of  the 
peace,  were  present  at  a  large  and  very  heavenly 
meeting.  The  Indian  emperor,  after  a  great  debate 
with  his  council,  came  also,  followed  by  his  kings,  with 
their  subordinate  chieftains,  and,  reclining  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  the  Chesapeake,  they  listened  to  the  evening 
discourse  of  the  benevolent  wanderer.  At  a  later  day, 
the  heir  of  the  province  attended  a  Quaker  assembly. 
But  the  refusal  of  the  Quakers  to  perform  military 
duty  subjected  them  to  fines  and  harsh  imprisonment ; 
the  refusal  to  take  an  oath  sometimes  involved  them 
in  a  forfeiture  of  property ;  nor  was  it  before  1688, 
six  years  after  the  arrival  of  William  Penn  in  America, 
that  indulgence  was  fully  conceded. 

Meantime  the  virtues  of  benevolence  and  gratitude 
ripened    together.      Charles,    the    eldest   son    of   the  1662 
proprietary,  came  to  reside  in  the  province  which  was 
to  be  his  patrimony.      He  visited   the   banks  of  the 
Delaware,4  and  struggled  to  extend  the  limits  of  his 

1  Bacon,  1606,  c.  vii.  4  Albany     Records,     xvii.    286. 

3  Besse,  ii.  381 — 388.  Very  ex-  "Young1  Baltimore  has  in  contem- 

act.  McMahon,  227,  less  full  than  plation  to  make  a  visit  on  the 

the  Quaker  historian.  river."  xvii.  297. 

3  George  Fox's  Journal,  448,  &c. 


238  DEATH  OF  CECILIUS  LORD  BALTIMORE. 

CHAP,  jurisdiction.1  As  in  Massachusetts,  money  was  coined 
— — ~  at  a  provincial  mint,2  and,  at  a  later  day,  the  value  of 
1686.  foreign  coins  was  arbitrarily  advanced.  A  duty  was 

levied  on  the  tonnage  of  every  vessel  that  entered 
1662.  the  waters.3  It  was  resolved  to  purchase  a  state- 
1674.  house,  which  was  subsequently  built  at  a  cost  of  forty 

thousand  pounds  of  tobacco — about  a  thousand  dollars. 
1666.  The  Indian  nations  were  pacified;  and  their  rights, 

subordination,  and  commerce,  denned  and  established. 

But  the  mildest  and  most  amiable  feature  of  legislation 
1662.  is  found  in  the  acts  of  compromise4  between  Lord 

1  fi  7  1 

1674.  Baltimore  and  the  representatives  of  the  people,  in 
which  the  power  of  the  former  to  raise  taxes  was 
accurately  limited,  and  the  mode  of  paying  quit-rents 
established  on  terms  favorable  to  the  colony;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  custom  of  two  shillings  a 
hogshead  was  levied  on  all  exported  tobacco,  of 
which  a  moiety  was  appropriated  to  the  defence  of 
the  government ;  the  residue  became  conditionally  the 
revenue  of  the  proprietary.  The  compromise,  though 
called  "  an  act  of  gratitude,"  was  favorable  to  the 
colonists.  The  people  held  it  a  duty  themselves  to 
bear  the  charges  of  government,  and  they  readily 
acknowledged  the  unwearied  care  of  the  proprietary 
for  the  welfare  of  his  dominions. 

Thus  was  the  declining  life  of  Cecilius  Lord  Balti- 
more, the  father  of  Maryland,  the  tolerant  legislator, 
the  benevolent  prince,  blessed  with  the  success  which 
philanthropy  deserves.  The  colony  which  he  had 
planted  in  youth,  crowned  his  old  age  with  its  grati- 

1  Compare  Albany  Records,  xvii.        2  Bacon,   1661,  c.  iv. ;   1662,  c. 

315,  245  ;    xviii.  337—365.     More  viii. ;  1686,  c.  iv. 
on  this  subject  hereafter.     Heer-        3  Ibid.  1661,  c.  vii. 
man's  Journal  sheds  a  clear  light        4  Ibid.  1662,  c.  xix. ;  1671,  c.  zi. 

on  the  controversy  with  Penn.  1674,  c.  L 


DEATH  OF  CECILIUS  LORD  BALTIMORE.  239 

tude.  Who  among  his  peers  could  vie  with  him  in  CHAP 
honors  ?  A  firm  supporter  of  prerogative,  a  friend  to  ~~^ 
the  Stuarts,  he  was  touched  with  the  sentiment  of 
humanity ;  an  earnest  disciple  of  the  Roman  church, 
of  which  he  venerated  the  expositions  of  truth  as 
infallible,  he,  first  among  legislators,  established  an 
equality  among  sects.  Free  from  religious  bigotry,  a 
lover  of  concord  and  of  tranquillity,  he  could  not  rise 
above  the  political  prejudices  of  his  party.  He  knew 
not  the  worth  or  the  fruits  of  popular  power ;  he  had 
not  perceived  the  character  of  the  institutions  which 
were  forming  in  the  New  World,  and  his  benevolent 
designs  were  the  results  of  his  own  moderation,  the 
fruit  of  his  personal  character,  without  regard  to 
the  spirit  of  his  age.  In  Rhode  Island,  intellectual 
freedom  was  a  principle  which  Roger  Williams  had 
elicited  from  the  sympathies  of  the  people ;  in  Mary- 
land, it  was  the  happy  thought  of  the  sovereign,  who 
did  not  know  that  ideas  find  no  secure  shelter  but 
in  the  breast  of  the  multitude.  The  people  are  less 
easily  shaken  than  the  prince.  Rhode  Island  never 
lost  the  treasure  of  which  it  had  become  conscious. 
The  principle  of  freedom  of  mind  did  not  exist  in  the 
people  of  Maryland,  and,  therefore,  like  the  benevo- 
lence of  individuals,  was  an  uncertain  possession,  till 
the  same  process  of  thought,  which  had  redeemed  the 
little  colony  of  the  north,  slowly,  but  surely,  infused 
itself  into  the  public  mind  on  the  Chesapeake.  Lord 
Baltimore  failed  to  obtain  that  highest  fame,  which 
springs  from  successful  influence  on  the  masses ;  his 
personal  merits  are  free  from  stain.  The  commercial 
metropolis  of  Maryland  commemorates  his  name  ;  the 
memory  of  his  wise  philanthropy  survives  in  American  l^7S 
history.  He  died  after  a  supremacy  of  more  than  30. 


240  MARYLAND  FAVORED  BACON'S   REBELLION. 

CHAP,  forty-three  years,  leaving  a  reputation  for  temperate 

H-v~L  wisdom,  which  the  dissensions  in  his  colony  and  the 
various  revolutions  of  England  could  not  tarnish.  He 
did  not  leave  the  impress  of  his  mind  on  the  political 
character  of  Maryland,  and,  therefore,  failed  of  obtain- 
ing the  brightest  glory  of  a  legislator.  Of  the  elements 
of  which  he  was  primarily  the  author,  nothing  endured 
but  the  rights  of  property  reserved  for  his  family. 

1676.  The  death  of  Cecilius  recalled  to  England  the  heir 
of  the  province,  who  had  now  administered  its  govern- 
ment for  fourteen  years  with  a  moderation  which  had 
been  rewarded  by  the  increasing  prosperity  of  his 
patrimony.  Previous  to  his  departure,  the  whole  code 
of  laws  received  a  thorough  revision  ;  the  memorable 
act  of  toleration  was  confirmed.  Virginia  had,  six 

1670.  years  before,  prohibited  the  importation  of  felons  until 
20.  the  king  or  privy  council  should  reverse  the  order.  In 
Maryland,  "  the  importation  of  convicted  persons " 
was  absolutely  prohibited  without  regard  to  the  will 
of  the  king  or  the  English  parliament,  and  in  1692  the 
prohibition  was  renewed.1  The  established  revenues 
of  the  proprietary  were  continued. 

As  Lord  Baltimore  sailed  for  England,  the  seeds 
of  discontent  were  already  germinating.  The  office 
of  proprietary,  a  feudal  principality,  with  extensive 
manors  in  every  county,  was  an  anomaly;  the  sole 
hereditary  legislator  in  the  province,  his  power  was 
not  in  harmony  with  the  political  predilections  of 
the  colonists,  or  the  habits  of  the  New  World.  The 
doctrine  of  the  paramount  authority  of  an  hereditary 
sovereign  was  at  war  with  the  spirit  which  emigration 
fostered,  and  the  principles  of  civil  equality  naturally 

'  Hening,  ii.  509,  510.    Bacon,  1676,  c.  xn. 


THE  PARTY  OF  ^AGONISTS  IN  MARYLAND.         241 

grew  up  in  all  the  British  settlements.     The  insurrec- 


XIV 

tion  of  Bacon  found  friends  north  of  the  Potomac,  and  ---- 
a  rising  was  checked  only  by  the  prompt  energy  of  the 
government.1     But  the  vague  and  undefined  cravings 
after    change,    the    tendency    toward    more    popular 
forms  of  administration,  could  not  be  repressed.     The 
assembly  which  was  convened  during  the  absence  of  1678 
the  proprietary  shared  in  this  spirit  ;  and  the  right  of 
suffrage   was  established   on  a   corresponding    basis.2 
The  party  of  "Baconists"  had  obtained  great  influ- 
ence on  the  public  mind.     Differences  between  the 
proprietary  and  the  people  became  apparent.     On  his 
return   to  the  province,  he   himself,  by  proclamation,  1681 
annulled  the  rule  which  the  representatives  of  Mary-     37° 
land  had  established  respecting  the  elective  franchise, 
and,  by  an  arbitrary  ordinance,  limited   the  right  of    Sept. 
suffrage  to  freemen  possessing  a  freehold  of  fifty  acres, 
or  having  a  visible   personal  estate  of  forty  pounds. 
No  difference  was  made  with  respect  to  color.     In 
Virginia,  the  negro,  the  mulatto,  and  the  Indian,  were 
first  disfranchised  in  1723  ;  in  Maryland,  they  retained 
by  law  the  right  of  suffrage  till  the  time  when  the  poor-  1803 
est  white  man  recovered  his  equal  franchise.     These 
restrictions,  which,  for  one  hundred  and  twenty-one 
years,  successfully  resisted   the  principle  of  universal 
suffrage  among  freemen  of  the  Caucasian  race,  were 
introduced  in  the  midst  of  scenes  of  civil  commotion. 
Fendall,    the   old    republican,3   was    again    planning 
schemes  of  insurrection,   and  even  of  independence. 
The  state  was  not  only  troubled  with  poverty,  but 

1  T.  M.'s  Account,  p.  21.    Lord  2  Bacon,  1678,  c.  ill    McMahon, 

Baltimore  to  the  earl  of  Anglesey,  445. 

in  Chalmers,  p.  376.     "  In  the  time  3  Documents,  in  Chalmers,  376. 

of  Bacon's  rebellion,  he  [Fendall]  The  letter  is  from  Lord  Baltimore, 

tried  to  raise  a  rebellion  here."  —  of  course,  an  ex  parte  statement. 

VOL.  II.        31 


242  PROTESTANT  BIGOTRY  IN  CATHOLIC  MARYLAND. 

CHAP,  was  in  danger  of  falling  to  pieces ;    for  it  was  said, 

~  "The  maxims  of  the  old  Lord  Baltimore  will  not  do 

in  the  present  age." 1 

The  insurrection  was  for  the  time  repressed ;  but  its 
symptoms  were  the  more  alarming  from  the  religious 
fanaticism  with  which  the  principle  of  popular  power 
was  combined.  The  discontents  were  increased 
by  hostility  toward  the  creed  of  Papists ;  and,  as 
Protestantism  became  a  political  sect,  the  proprietary 
government  was  in  the  issue  easily  subverted ;  for  it 
had  struck  no  deep  roots  either  in  the  religious  tenets, 
the  political  faith,  or  the  social  condition  of  the  colony. 
It  had  rested  only  on  a  grateful  deference,  which  was 
rapidly  wearing  away. 

I676  Immediately  on  the  death  of  the  first  feudal 
sovereign  of  Maryland,  the  powerful  influence  of 
the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  been  solicited  to 
secure  an  establishment  of  the  Anglican  church, 
which  clamored  for  favor  in  the  province  where  it  en- 
joyed equality.  Misrepresentations  were  not  spared. 
"  Maryland,"  said  a  clergyman  of  the  church,  "  is  a 
pest-house  of  iniquity."  The  cure  for  all  evil  was 
to  be  "  an  established  support  of  a  Protestant  minis- 
try."2 The  prelates  demanded,  not  freedom,  but 
privilege ;  an  establishment  to  be  maintained  at  the 
common  expense  of  the  province.  Lord  Baltimore 
resisted ;  the  Roman  Catholic  was  inflexible  in  his 
regard  for  freedom  of  worship. 

The  opposition  to  Lord  Baltimore  as  a  feudal 
sovereign  easily  united  with  Protestant  bigotry ;  and 

1681.  when  the  insurrection  was  suppressed  by  methods 
of  clemency  and  forbearance,  the  government  was 

i  Culpepper,  iu  Chalmers,  357.       a  Re?.  J.  Yeo,  in  Chalmers,  373. 


REVOLUTION  IN  MARYLAND.  243 

vehemently  accused  of  favor  towards  Papists.  The  CHAP. 
opportunity  was  too  favorable  to  be  neglected  ;  the  ~~<~~ 
English  ministry  soon  issued  an  order,  that  offices 
of  government  in  Maryland  should  be  intrusted 
exclusively  to  Protestants.  Roman  Catholics  were 
disfranchised  in  the  province  which  they  had  planted. 
With  the  colonists  Lord  Baltimore  was  at  issue  for 
his  hereditary  authority,  with  the  English  church  for 
his  religious  faith ;  attempts  to  modify  the  unhappy 
effects  of  the  navigation  acts  on  colonial  industry, 
invdved  him  in  opposition  to  the  commercial  policy  of 
England.  His  rights  of  jurisdiction  had  been  disre- 
garded ;  the  custom-house  officer  of  Maryland  had 
been  placed  under  the  superintendence  of  the  governor 
of  Virginia ;  and  the  unwelcome  relations,  resisted  by 
the  officers  of  Lord  Baltimore,  had  led  to  quarrels  and 
bloodshed,  which  were  followed  by  a  controversy  with 
Virginia.1  The  accession  of  James  II.  seemed  an  1685 
auspicious  event  for  a  Roman  Catholic  proprietary ; 
but  the  first  result  from  parliament  was  an  increased 
burden  on  the  industry  of  the  colony,  by  means  of  a 
new  tax  on  the  consumption  of  its  produce  in  Eng- 
land ;  while  the  king,  who  meditated  the  subversion 
of  British  freedom,  resolved,  with  impartial  injustice, 
to  reduce  all  the  colonies  to  a  direct  dependence  on 
the  crown.  The  proprietary,  hastening  to  England, 
vainly  pleaded  his  irreproachable  administration.  Re-  1637 
monstrance  was  disregarded,  and  chartered  rights 
despised ;  and  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  was  ordered 
against  the  patent  of  Lord  Baltimore.  But  before 
the  legal  forms  could  be  brought  to  an  issue,  the  peo- 
ple of  England  had  sat  in  judgment  on  their  king. 

1  Communicated  from  Maryland  Records. 


244  REVOLUTION  IN  MARYLAND. 

CHAP.      The   approach   of  the   revolution   effected    no  im 

XIV 

— v^L  mediate  benefit  to  Lord  Baltimore.  What  though 
1688.  mutinous  speeches  and  practices  against  the  proprie- 
tary government  were  punishable  by  whipping,  boring 
the  tongue,  imprisonment,  exile,  death  itself  ?  The 
spirit  of  popular  liberty,  allied  to  Protestant  bigotry  and 
the  clamor  of  a  pretended  popish  plot,  was  too  powerful 
an  adversary  for  his  colonial  government.  William 
Joseph,  the  president  to  whom  he  had  intrusted  the 
administration,  convened  an  assembly.  The  address 
on  opening  it,  explains  the  character  of  the  proprie- 
tary, and  of  the  insurrection  which  followed.  "  Divine 
Providence,"  said  the  representative  of  Lord  Balti- 
more, "  hath  ordered  us  to  meet.  The  power  by  which 
we  are  assembled  here,  is  undoubtedly  derived  from 
God  to  the  king,  and  from  the  king  to  his  excellency, 
the  lord  proprietary,  and  from  his  said  lordship  to  us. 
The  power,  therefore,  whereof  I  speak,  being,  as  said, 
firstly,  in  God  and  from  God  ;  secondly,  in  the  king 
and  from  the  king ;  thirdly,  in  his  lordship ;  fourthly, 
in  us  ;  —  the  end  and  duty  of,  and  for  which  this 
assembly  is  now  called  and  met,  is  that  from  these 
four  heads,  to  wit :  from  God,  the  king,  our  lord,  and 
Nov.  selves."  Having  thus  established  the  divine  right 
of  the  proprietary,  he  endeavored  to  confirm  it  by 
invading  the  privileges  of  the  assembly,  and  exacting 
a  special  oath  of  fidelity  to  his  dominion.  The  assem- 
bly resisted  the  attempt,  and  was  prorogued.1  Is  it 
strange  that  excitements  increased ;  that  they  were 
heightened  by  tidings  of  the  invasion  of  England  ; 
that  they  were  kindled  into  a  flame  by  a  delay  in 
proclaiming  the  new  sovereign  ?  An  organized  insur- 

1  McMahon,  235.     The  chapters     most  accurate  of  them   all.    Chal 
of  Chalmers  on  Maryland  are  the     mers  had  resided  in  Maryland. 


LORD   CULPEPPER  IN  VIRGINIA.  245 

rection  was  conducted  by  John  Coode,  of  old  an  asso-  CHAP 

XIV. 

ciate  of  Fendall ;  and  "  The  Association  in  arms  for  — •~L 
the  defence  of  the  Protestant  religion,"  usurped  the  1689. 
government.  Can  the  cause  of  liberty  never  be  as-  «&?' 
serted  in  perfect  purity  ?  The  revolution  was  a  sign 
of  the  advancing  spirit  of  the  age ;  yet  Coode  was  a 
worthless  man.  His  party  was  strengthened  by  the 
most  false  and  virulent  calumnies  against  the  absent 
proprietary,  and  the  overthrow  of  liberty  of  conscience 
was  menaced  by  the  insurrection.  But  would  the 
reformed  English  government  suffer  Papists  to  be  op- 
pressed in  the  colony  where  Papists  had  proclaimed 
freedom  of  mind,  and  set  the  example  of  toleration  ? 
Would  the  new  dynasty  seek  to  appropriate  to  itself 
the  power  and  the  rights  that  had  been  wrested  from 
Lord  Baltimore  by  turbulent  violence  ?  The  meth- 
od pursued  by  the  ministry  of  William  and  Mary 
towards  Maryland  would  test  their  sincerity,  and  show 
whether  they  were  governed  by  universal  principles 
of  justice,  or  had  derived  their  inspiration  for  liberty 
from  circumstances  and  times — whether  they  had 
made  a  revolution  in  favor  of  humanity  or  in  behalf 
of  established  privileges. 

About  two  years  after  Virginia  had  been  granted 
to  Arlington   and  Culpepper,  the  latter  obtained  an  1675 
appointment  as  governor  of  Virginia  for  life,  and  was     g/ 
proclaimed   soon   after   Berkeley's   departure.1      The  1677 
Ancient  Dominion    was   changed   into  a  proprietary 
government,  and  the  administration  surrendered,  as  it 
were,  to  one  of  the   proprietaries,  who,  at  the  same 
time,  was  sole  possessor  of  the  immense  domain  be- 
tween the   Rappahannock  and   the  Potomac.      Cul- 

1  Hening,  ii.  564. 


246  LORD  CULPEPPER  IN   VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  pepper  was  disposed  to  regard  his  office  as  a  sme- 
— v-L  cure,  but  the  king  chid  him  for  remaining  in  England ; 
1680.  anc|  embarking  for  Virginia,  the  governor,  early  in 
1680,  arrived  in  his  province.1  He  had  no  high- 
minded  regard  for  Virginia ;  he  valued  his  office  and 
his  patents  only  as  property.  Clothed  by  the  royal 
clemency  with  power  to  bury  past  contests,  he  per- 
verted the  duty  of  humanity  into  a  means  of  enriching 
himself,  and  increasing  his  authority.  Yet  Culpepper 
was  not  singularly  avaricious.  His  conduct  was  in 
harmony  with  the  principles  which  prevailed  in  Eng- 
land. As  the  British  merchant  claimed  the  monopoly 
of  colonial  commerce,  as  the  British  manufacturer 
valued  Virginia  only  as  a  market  for  his  goods,  so  the 
British  courtiers  looked  to  appointments  in  America 
as  a  means  of  enlarging  their  own  revenues,  or  provid- 
ing for  their  dependants.  Nothing  but  Lord  Culpep- 
per's  avarice  gives  him  a  place  in  American  history. 
Ignoble  as  is  the  claim,  it  contains  a  profound 
moral.  Who  can  doubt  that  the  people  collectively 
exercise  the  appointing  power  more  wisely  than  any 
individual  ? 

May  Having  taken  the  oath  of  office  at  Jamestown,  and 
organized  his  council  of  members  friendly  to  preroga- 
tive, the  wilful  followers  of  Bacon  were  disfranchised. 

Jane   An  assembly  was  convened  in  June,  and  three  acts, 
8 

framed  in  England  and  confirmed  in  advance  by  the 

great  seal,  were  proposed  for  enactment.  The  first 
was  of  indemnity  and  oblivion — less  clement  than  had 
been  hoped,  yet  definitive,  and  therefore  welcome. 


1  Burk,  ii.  236.    I  think  by  1679  of  a  year."      His    residence   was 

must  be  meant  1679-80,  or  it  is  from  early  in  the  year  to  August, 

an  error.     Beverley   was  right  in  1680. 
"making  Culpepper's  stay  fall  short 


LORD  CULPEPPER  IN  VIRGINIA.  247 

The  second  withdrew  from  the  assembly  the  powers  CHAP 
it  had  claimed  of  welcoming  the  alien  with  privileges  ^^ 
of  citizenship,  and  declared  it  a  prerogative  of  the 
governor.  And  the  third,  still  more  grievous  to  colo- 
nial liberty,  constructed  after  an  English  precedent, 
yet  so  hateful  to  Virginians,  that  it  encountered  severe 
opposition,  and  was  carried  only  from  hope  of  pardon 
for  the  rebellion,  authorized  a  perpetual  export  duty 
of  two  shillings  a  hogshead  on  tobacco,  and  granted 
the  proceeds  as  a  royal  revenue  for  the  support  of 
government,  to  be  accounted  for,  not  to  the  assembly, 
but  to  the  king.1  Thus  the  power  of  Virginia  over 
colonial  taxation,  the  only  check  on  the  administration, 
was  voted  away  without  condition.  The  royal  rev- 
enue was  ample  and  was  perpetual.  Is  it  strange  that 
political  parties  in  Virginia  showed  signs  of  change? — 
that  many  who  had  been  zealous  among  the  Cavaliers, 
became  blended  with  the  mass  of  the  population,  and 
learned  to  distrust  the  royal  influence  ? 

For  his  own  interests  Lord  Culpepper  was  equally 
careful.  The  salary  of  governor  of  Virginia  had 
been  a  thousand  pounds :  for  him  it  was  doubled, 
because  he  was  a  peer.  A  further  grant  was  made 
for  house-rent.  Perquisites  of  every  kind  were  sought 
for  and  increased.  Nay,  the  peer  was  hardly  an  hon- 
est man.  He  defrauded  the  soldiers  of  a  part  "jf  their 
wages  by  an  arbitrary  change  in  the  value  of  current 
coin.2  Having  made  himself  familiar  with  Virginia, 
and  employed  the  summer  profitably,  in  the  month 
of  August  he  sailed  for  England  from  Boston.3  How 
unlike  Winthrop  and  Haynes,  Clarke  and  Williams ! 

1  Hening,  ii.  568,  569,  458,  &c.        3  Hening,  n.  561.    Hutchinson's 
466,  &c.    Beverley,  p.  79.  Mass.  i.  29t> 

2  Beverley,  79,  80. 


248  LORD  CULPEPPER  IN  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP  Virginia  was  impoverished  ;  the  low  price  of  to- 
— ~  bacco  left  the  planter  without  hope.  The  assembly 
1680.  had  attempted  by  legislation  to  call  towns  into 
being,  and  cherish  manufactures.  With  little  regard 
to  colonial  liberties,  it  also  petitioned  the  king  to 
prohibit  by  proclamation  the  planting  of  tobacco  in 
the  colonies  for  one  year.  The  first  measure  could 
not  countervail  the  navigation  acts ;  with  regard  to 
the  second,  riots  were  substituted  for  the  royal  procla- 
mation, and  mobs  collected  to  cut  up  the  fields  of  to- 
bacco-plants. The  country  was  wreJ-ched,  and  there- 
fore restless. 

1682.  Culpepper  returned  to  reduce  Virginia  to  quiet,  and 
to  promote  his  own  interests  as  proprietor  of  the  North- 
ern Neck.  A  few  victims  on  the  gallows  silenced 
discontent.  The  assembly  was  convened,  and  its  little 
remaining  control  over  the  executive  was  wrested  from 
it.  The  council  constituted  the  General  Court  of 
Virginia ;  according  to  usage,  appeals  lay  from  it  to 
the  General  Assembly.  The  custom  was  eminently 
favorable  to  the  power  of  the  people;  it  menaced  Cul- 
pepper with  defeat  in  his  attempts  to  appropriate  to 
himself  the  cultivated  plantations  of  the  Northern  Neck. 
The  artful  magistrate  fomented  a  dispute  between  the 
council  and  the  assembly.  The  burgesses,  in  their 
high  court  of  appeal,  claimed  to  sit  alone,  excluding 
the  council  from  whose  decision  the  appeal  was  made ; 
and  Culpepper,  having  referred  the  question  to  the 
1683  king  f°r  decision,  soon  announced  that  no  \ppeals 
whatever  should  be  permitted  to  the  assembly,  nor  to 
the  king  in  council,  under  the  value  of  one  hundred 
pounds  sterling.  It  shows  the  spirit  of  the  council  of 
Virginia,  that  it  welcomed  the  new  rule,  desiring  only 


LORD  CULPEPPER  IN  VIRGINIA.  249 

that  there  might  be  no  appeal  to  the  king  under  the  CHAP. 
value  of  two  hundred  pounds.1  **~*~L> 

The  holders  of  land  within  the  grant  of  Culpepper 
now  lay  at  his  mercy,  and  were  compelled  eventually 
to  negotiate  a  compromise. 

All  accounts  agree  in  describing  the  condition  of 
Virginia,  at  this  time,  as  one  of  extreme  distress.  Cul- 
pepper had  no  compassion  for  poverty — no  sympathy 
for  a  province  impoverished  by  perverse  legislation — 
and  the  residence  in  Virginia  was  so  irksome,  that  in  a 
few  months  he  returned  to  England.  The  council  .  683 

AT 

reported   the   griefs  and  restlessness  of  the  country ;     ^y 
and  they  renew  the  request,  that  the  grant  to  Culpep- 
per and  Arlington  may  be  recalled.     The  poverty  of 
the    province   rendered   negotiation    more   easy ;    the 
design  agreed  well  with  the  new  colonial  policy  of 
Charles  II.     Arlington  surrendered  his  rights  to  Cul- 
pepper, and,  in  the  following  year,  the  crown  was  able  1684 
to  announce  that  Virginia  was  again  a  royal  province.2     %/ 

Nor  did   Culpepper   retain  his  office  as  governor 
His    patent  was   for   life;    but,    like   so   many  other 
charters,  it  was  rendered  void  by  a  process  of  law,3  1683 
not  so  much  from  regard  for  Virginia  liberties,  as  to 
recover  a  prerogative  for  the  crown. 

Lord  Howard  of  Effingham  was  Culpepper's  succes-  Aug 
sor.  Like  so  many  before  and  after  him,  he  solicited 
office  in  America  to  get  money,4  and  resorted  to  the 
usual  expedient  of  exorbitant  fees.  It  is  said,  he  did 
not  scruple  to  share  perquisites  with  his  clerks.  The 
ideas  of  right  and  wrong — the  same  in  every  breast. 


1  Hening,    iii.    550.      Beverley,        3  Chalmers,  345. 
82,  83.  4  Chalmers,  347.      Beverley,  85. 

*  Ibid.  ii.  561,  563,  578,  521,  522. 
Beverley,  85. 

VOL.  ii.  32 


250  JAMES  II    AND  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  if  the  voice  within  does  but  find  a  willing  listener — 

XIV. 

— v-1*  are  yet  obscured  and  perverted  by  men's  interests  and 
habits.  In  Virginia,  the  avarice  of  Effirigham  was 
the  public  scorn ;  in  England,  it  met  with  no  severe 
reprobation. 

1685.  The  accession  of  James  II.  made  but  few  changes  in 
the  political  condition  of  Virginia.  The  suppression 
of  Monmouth's  rebellion  gave  to  the  colony  useful 
citizens.  Men  connect  themselves,  in  the  eyes  of 
posterity,  with  the  objects  in  which  they  take  delight. 
James  II.  was  inexorable  towards  his  brother's  favorite. 
Monmouth  was  beheaded,  and  the  triumph  of  legiti- 
macy was  commemorated  by  a  medal,  representing 
the  heads  of  Monmouth  and  Argyle  on  an  altar,  their 
bleeding  bodies  beneath,  with  this  inscription,  "  Sic 
aras  et  sceptra  tuemur ; " — thus  we  defend  our  altars 
and  our  throne.  "  Lord  chief  justice  is  making  his 
campaign  in  the  west ;  " — I  quote  from  a  letter  which 
James  II.,  with  his  own  hand,  wrote  to  one  in  Europe, 
in  allusion  to  Jeffries'  circuit  for  punishing  the  insur- 
gents— "  he  has  almost  done  his  campaign.  He  has 
already  condemned  several  hundreds — some  of  whom 
are  already  executed,  more  are  to  be,  and  the  others 
sent  to  the  plantations."  This  is  the  language  of  the 
sovereign  of  our  ancestors.  The  prisoners  condemned 
to  transportation  were  a  salable  commodity.  Such 
was  the  demand  for  labor  in  America,  that  convicts 
and  laborers  were  regularly  purchased  and  shipped  to 
the  colonies,  where  they  were  sold  as  indented  ser- 
vants. The  courtiers  round  James  II.  exulted  in  the 
rich  harvest  which  the  rebellion  promised,  and  begged 
of  the  monarch  frequent  gifts  of  their  condemned 

l«L1?'  countrymen.       Jeffries    heard    of  the   scramble,    and 

BOvd 

19.     indignantly   addressed    the    king,    "  I    beseech    your 


JAMES   II.   AND   VIRGINIA.  251 

majesty,  that  I   may  inform  you  that  each  prisoner  CHAP. 

will  be  worth  ten  pound,  if  not  fifteen  pound,  apiece ; -I 

and,  sir,  if  your  majesty  orders  these  as  you  have 
already  designed,  persons  that  have  not  suffered  in 
the  service,  will  run  away  with  the  booty."  At  length 
the  spoils  were  distributed.  The  convicts  were  in 
part  persons  of  family  and  education,  accustomed  to 
elegance  and  ease.  "  Take  all  care,"  wrote  the 
monarch,  under  the  countersign  of  Sunderland,  to  the  1685. 
government  in  Virginia — "  take  all  care  that  they  ^ 
continue  to  serve  for  ten  years  at  least,  and  that  they 
be  not  permitted  in  any  manner  to  redeem  themselves 
by  money  or  otherwise,  until  that  term  be  fully  ex- 
pired. Prepare  a  bill  for  the  assembly  of  our  colony, 
with  such  clauses  as  shall  be  requisite  for  this  purpose." 
No  Virginia  legislature  seconded  such  malice ;  and  in 
December,  1689,  the  exiles  were  pardoned.1  Tyranny 
and  injustice  peopled  America  with  men  nurtured  in 
suffering  and  adversity.  The  history  of  our  coloniza- 
tion is  the  history  of  the  crimes  of  Europe. 

Thus  did  Jeffries  contribute  to  people  the  New 
World ;  on  another  occasion,  he  exerted  an  oppo-  1685. 
site  influence.  Kidnapping  had  become  common  in 
Bristol ;  and  not  felons  only,  but  young  persons  and 
others,  were  hurried  across  the  Atlantic  and  sold  for 
money.  At  Bristol,  the  mayor  and  justices  would 
intimidate  small  rogues  and  pilferers,  who,  under  the 
terror  of  being  hanged,  prayed  for  transportation  as 
the  only  avenue  to  safety,  and  were  then  divided 
among  the  members  of  the  court.  The  trade  was 
exceedingly  profitable — far  more  so  than  the  slave- 
trade — and  had  been  conducted  for  years.  By  ac- 

i  Laing's  Scotland,  iv.  166.    Dal-    of  Rev.  1688.     Appendix,   No.  u, 
tymple,  ii.  53.    Mackintosh,  Hist.    p.  705.  Am.  Ed.    Chalmers,  358. 


252  JAMES  II.   AND  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  cident  it  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Jeffries,  who 
•~^~  delighted  in  a  fair  opportunity  to  rant.  Finding  that 
the  aldermen,  justices,  and  the  mayor  himself,  were 
concerned  in  this  kidnapping,  he  turned  to  the  mayor, 
who  was  sitting  on  the  bench,  bravely  arrayed  in 
scarlet  and  furs,  and  gave  him  every  ill  name  which 
scolding  eloquence  could  devise.  Nor  would  he  desist 
till  he  made  the  scarlet  chief  magistrate  of  the  city 
go  down  to  the  criminal's  post  at  the*  bar,  and  plead 
for  himself  as  a  common  rogue  would  have  done. 
The  prosecutions  depended  till  the  revolution,  which 
made  an  amnesty;  and  the  judicial  kidnappers,  re- 
taining their  gains,  suffered  nothing  beyond  disgrace 
and  terror.1 

Meantime  Virginia  ceased  for  a  season  to  be  the 
favorite  resort  of  voluntary  emigrants.  Men  were 
attracted  to  the  New  World  by  the  spirit  of  enter- 
prise and  the  love  of  freedom.  In  Virginia,  industry 
was  depressed  and  the  royal  authority  severe.  The 
presence  of  a  frigate  had  sharpened  the  zeal  of  the 
royal  officers  in  enforcing  the  acts  of  navigation.  The 
685.  new  tax  in  England,  on  the  consumption  of  tobacco, 
was  injurious  to  the  producer.  Culpepper  and  his  coun- 
1683.  cil  had  arraigned  a  printer  for  publishing  the  laws,  and 
23.*  ordered  him  to  print  nothing  till  the  king's  pleasure 
was  known.  And  Effingham  was  the  bearer  of  the 
royal  pleasure.  The  best  proof  which  Charles  II.  had 
given  of  his  interest  in  Virginia,  was  the  express  in- 
struction to  allow  no  printing-press  on  any  pretence 
whatever.9  The  rule  was  continued  under  James  II 
The  methods  of  despotism  are  monotonous 

To   perfect    the    system,   Effingham   established  a 

1  Life  of  Lord  Keeper  Guilford,        2  Herring,    11.    518       Chalmers, 
u.  25—27.  545. 


JAMES  II.  AND  VIRGINIA.  233 

chancery  court,  in  which  he  himself  was  chancellor.  CHAP 

XIV 

The  councillors  might  advise,  but  were  without  a  vote.  ^-v^l 
An  arbitrary  table  of  fees  followed  of  course.  This  is 
the  period  when  royal  authority  was  at  its  height  in 
Virginia.  The  executive,  the  council,  the  judges,  the 
sheriffs,  the  county  commissioners,  and  local  magis- 
trates, were  all  appointed  directly  or  indirectly  by  the 
crown.  Virginia  had  no  town-meetings — no  village 
democracies — no  free  municipal  institutions.  The 
custom  of  colonial  assemblies  remained,  but  the  as 
sembly  was  chosen  under  a  restricted  franchise ;  its 
most  confidential  officer  was  ordered  to  be  appointed  1686 
by  the  governor,1  and  its  power  over  the  revenue  was  i 
lost  by  the  perpetual  levy  which  it  could  not  recall. 
The  indulgence  of  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the 
enfranchisement  of  Papists,  were  in  themselves  unex- 
ceptionable measures  ;  they  could  bring  no  detriment 
:o  colonial  liberties.  Yet  Protestantism  and  popular 
aberty  in  that  day  were  identified,  and  toleration 
itself  was  suspected  in  King  James.  Is  it  strange 
that  the  colony  was  agitated  by  a  party  favorable  to 
freedom?  The  year  after  Bacon's  rebellion,  when 
the  royal  commissioners  forcibly  seized  the  records  of 
the  assembly,  the  act  had  been  voted  "  a  violation 
of  privilege,"  "  an  outrage  never  practised  by  the 
kings  of  England,"  and  "  never  to  be  offered  in 
future."  When  the  records  were  again  demanded,  J681 
that  this  resolution  might  be  expunged,  Beverley,  the 
clerk  of  the  house,  refused  obedience  to  the  lieuten- 
ant-governor and  council,  saying  he  might  not  do  it 
without  leave  of  the  burgesses,  his  masters.2  The 
same  spirit  of  resistance  was  manifested  by  succeed- 
ing assemblies.  In  1685,  the  first  assembly  convened 

1  Hening,  iii.  40,  41,  550. 

»  Ibid.  iii.  548.    Burk,  ii.  215,  236,  242,  24a 


254 


JAMES  II.  AND   VIRGINIA. 


CxivP'  a^tei  ^e  accessi°n  °f  James  II.,  questioned  a  part  of 
— ~"*  his  negative  power.  Former  laws  had  been  repealed 
by  the  assembly ;  the  king  negatived  the  repeal, 
which  necessarily  revived  the  earlier  law.  It  marks 
the  determined  spirit  of  the  colonists,  and  their  rapid 
tendency  towards  demanding  self-government  as  a 
natural  right,  that  the  assembly  obstinately  refused  to 
acknowledge  this  exercise  of  prerogative,  and  brought 
upon  themselves,  from  King  James,  a  censure  of  their 
"  unnecessary  debates  and  contests,  touching  the  neg- 
ative voice,"  "  the  disaffected  and  unquiet  disposition 
of  the  members,  and  their  irregular  and  tumultuous 
1686  proceedings."  The  assembly  was  dissolved  by  royal 
i;T  proclamation.1  James  Collins  was  imprisoned  and 
loaded  with  irons  for  treasonable  expressions.  The 
servile  counsel  imitated  Effingham  and  King  James  ; 

1687.  they  pledged  to  the  king  their  lives  and  fortunes,  but  the 
£r     people  of  Virginia  was  more  intractable  than  ever.   The 

indomitable  spirit  of  personal  independence,  nourished 
by  the  manners  of  Virginia,  could  never  be  repressed. 
Unlike  ancient  Rome,  Virginia  placed  the  defence  of 
liberty,  not  in  municipal  corporations,  but  in  persons. 
The  liberty  of  the  individual  was  ever  highly  prized  ; 
and  freedom  sheltered  itself  in  the  collected  energy  of 
the  public  mind.  Such  was  the  character  of  the  new 

1688.  assembly   which   was  convened    some  months    before 
the  British  revolution.      The  turbulent  spirit  of  the 
burgesses  was  greater  than   ever,  and  an  immediate 
dissolution   of  the    body    seemed    to  the  council   the 
only  mode  of  counteracting  their  influence.     But  the 
awakened  spirit  of  free  discussion,  banished  from  the 
hall  of  legislation,  fled  for  refuge  among  the  log-houses 
and  plantations  that  were  sprinkled  along  the  streams. 

l  Hening,  iii.  40,  41, 


• 


JAMES   II.   AND   VIRGINIA.  255 

The  people  ran  to  arms  :  general  discontent  threatened  CHAP 
an  insurrection.      The  governor,   in  a  new   country,  *— v^. 
without  soldiers  and  without  a  citadel,  was  compelled  to 
practise  moderation.     Tyranny  was  impossible  ;   it  had 
no  powerful  instruments.1     Despotism  sought  in  vain  to 
establish  itself  in  Virginia ;  when  the  prerogative  of  the 
governor  was  at  its  height,  he  was  still  too  feeble  to 
oppress  the  colony.     Virginia  was  always  "  A  LAND  OF 

LIBERTY." 

Nor  let  the  first  tendencies  to  union  pass  unnoticed. 
In  the  Bay  of  the  Chesapeake,  Smith  had  encountered 
warriors  of  the  Five  Nations  ;  and  others  had  fearlessly 
roamed  to  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and 
even  invaded  the  soil  of  Maine.  Some  years  before 
Philip's  war,  the  Mohawks  committed  ravages  near 
Northampton,  on  Connecticut  River;  and  the  General  1667 
Court  of  Massachusetts  addressed  them  a  letter: — 
"  We  never  yet  did  any  wrong  to  you,  or  any  of 
yours," — such  was  the  language  of  the  Puritan  di- 
plomatists— "  neither  will  we  take  any  from  you,  but 
will  right  our  people  according  to  justice."  Maryland 
and  Virginia  had  repeatedly  negotiated  with  the  Sen- 
ecas.  In  July,  1684,  the  governor  of  Virginia  and  of 
New  York,  and  the  agent  of  Massachusetts,  met  the 
sachems  of  the  Five  Nations  at  Albany,  to  strengthen 
and  burnish  the  covenant-chain,  and  plant  the  tree  of 
peace,  of  which  the  top  should  reach  the  sun,  and  the 
branches  shelter  the  wide  land.  The  treaty  extended 
from  the  St.  Croix  to  Albemarle.  New  York  was 
the  bond  of  New  England  and  Virginia.2  The  north 
ana  the  south  were  united  by  the  conquest  of  NEW 
NETHER  LAND. 

i  Burk,  ii.  302—306. 

*  Colden's  Five  Nations,  44,  &c.    Massachusetts  Records,  1667 


CHAPTER    XV. 

NEW   FETHERLAND. 

CxvP-  THE  spirit  of  the  age  was  present  when  the  founda- 
^ —  tions  of  New  York  were  laid.  Every  great  European 
event  affected  the  fortunes  of  America.  Did  a  state 
prosper,  it  sought  an  increase  of  wealth  by  planta- 
tions in  the  west.  Was  a  sect  persecuted,  it  escaped 
to  the  New  World.  The  reformation^  followed  by 
collisions  between  English  dissenters  and  the  Anglican 
hierarchy,  colonized  New  England  ;  the  reformation, 
emancipating  the  Low  Countries,  led  to  settlements  on 
the  Hudson.  The  Netherlands  divide  with  England 
the  glory  of  having  planted  the  first  colonies  in,  the 
United  States ;  they  also  divide  the  glory  of  having 
set  the  examples  of  public  freedom.  If  England  gave 
our  fathers  the  idea  of  a  popular  representation,  the 
United  Provinces  were  their  model  of  a  federal  union. 
At  the  discovery  of  America  the  Netherlands  pos- 
sessed the  municipal  institutions  which  had  survived 
the  wreck  of  the  Roman  world,  and  the  feudal  liber- 
ties of  the  middle  ages.  The  landed  aristocracy,  the 
hierarchy,  and  the  municipalities,  exercised  political 
franchises.  The  municipal  officers,  in  part  appointed 
by  the  sovereign,  in  part  perpetuating  themselves, 
had  common  interests  with  the  industrious  citizens, 
from  whom  they  were  selected ;  and  the  nobles,  cher- 


]5TEW    NETHEELAND.  25*7 

ishing  the  feudal  right  of  resisting  arbitrary  taxation,  CHAP. 
joined  the  citizens  in  defending  national  liberty  against  — ^ 
encroachments. 

The  urgencies  of  war,  the  reformation,  perhaps  1517 
also  the  arrogance  of  power,  often  tempted  Charles  V.  1559. 
to  violate  the  constitutions  of  the  Netherlands ; 
Philip  II.,  on  his  accession  in  1559,  formed  the  delib-  1559. 
erate  purpose  of  subverting  them,  and  found  a  willing 
coadjutor  in  the  prelates.  During  the  middle  age  the 
church  was  the  sole  guardian  of  the  people  ;  and  its 
political  influence  rested  on  gratitude  towards  the  or- 
der which  limited  arbitrary  power  by  invoking  the 
truths  of  religion,  and  opened  to  plebeian  ambition  the 
highest  distinctions.  In  the  progress  of  society,  the 
ward  was  become  of  age,  and  could  protect  its  rights ; 
the  guardian  had  fulfilled  its  office,  and  might  now  re- 
sign its  supremacy.  But  the  Roman  hierarchy,  rigidly 
asserting  authority,  refused  to  submit  faith  to  the  test 
of  inquiry,  and  struggled  to  establish  a  spiritual  des- 
potism :  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  equally  refusing  to 
subject  their  administrations  to  discussion,  aimed  at 
absolute  dominion  in  the  state.  A  new  political  alli- 
ance was  the  consequence.  The  catholic  priesthood 
and  the  temporal  sovereigns,  during  the  middle  age  so 
often  and  so  bitterly  opposed,  entered  into  a  natural 
and  necessary  friendship.  By  increasing  the  number 
of  bishops,  who,  in  right  of  their  office,  had  a  voice  in 
the  states,  Philip  II.,  in  1559,  destroyed  the  balance 
of  the  constitutiou. 

Thus  the  power  of  the  sovereign  sought  to  crush 
inherited  privileges.  Patriotism  and  hope  animated 
the  provinces  ;  despotism  and  bigotry  were  on  the  side 
of  Philip.  We  have  witnessed  the  sanguinary  charac- 
ter of  the  Spanish  system  at  St.  Augustine ;  we  are 

VOL.  n.  33 


258  AMERICAN   COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,  now  to  trace  the  feudal  liberties  of  the  Netherlands  to 

XV 

— r— -  the  Isle  of  Manhattan. 

The  contest  in  the  Low  Countries  was  one  of  the 
most  memorable  in  the  history  of  the  human  race. 
All  classes  were  roused  to  opposition.  The  nobles 
framed  a  solemn  petition ;  the  common  people  broke 
in  pieces  the  images  that  filled  the  churches.  Despot- 
ism then  seized  possession  of  the  courts,  and  invested 
a  commission  with  arbitrary  power  over  life  and  pro- 
perty ;  to  overawe  the  burghers,  the  citadels  were 
filled  with  mercenary  soldiers ;  to  strike  terror  into 
the  nobility,  Egmont  and  Horn  were  executed.  Men 
fled ;  but  whither  ?  The  village,  the  city,  the  court, 
the  camp,  were  held  by  the  tyrant ;  the  fugitive  had 
no  asylum  but  the  ocean. 

The  establishment  of  subservient  courts  was  fol- 
lowed by  arbitrary  taxation.  But  feudal  liberty  for- 
bade taxation  except  by  consent ;  and  the  levying  of 
the  tenth  penny  excited  more  commotion  than  the 
tribunal  of  blood.  Merchant  and  landholder,  citizen 
and  peasant,  catholic  and  protestant,  were  ripe  for 
insurrection ;  and  even  with  foreign  troops  Alba 
vainly  attempted  to  enforce  taxation  without  repre- 

1572.  sentation.  Just  then,  in  April,  1572,  a  party  of  the 
fugitive  "  beggars  "  succeeded  in  gaining  the  harbor  of 
Briel ;  and  in  July  of  the  same  year,  the  states  of 
Holland,  creating  the  prince  of  Orange  their  stadt- 

1575.  holder,  prepared  to  levy  money  and  troops.     In  1575 
Zealand  joined  with  Holland  in  demanding  for  free- 
dom some  better  safeguard  than  the  word  of  Philip 

1576.  II.,  and  in  November  of  the  following  year  nearly  all 
the  provinces  united  to  drive  foreign  troops  from  their 
soil.     "  The  spirit  that  animates  them,"  said  Sydney 
to  Queen  Elizabeth,  "  is  the  spirit  of  God,  and  is  in- 
vincible." 


NEW   NETHERLAJSTD.  259 

The  particular  union  of  five  northern  provinces  at  CHAP. 
Utrecht,  in  January,  1579,  perfected  the  insurrection  — • — 
by  forming  the  basis  of  a  sovereignty ;  and  when 
their  ablest  chiefs  were  put  under  the  ban  and  a  price 
offered  for  the  assassination  of  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
the  deputies  in  the  assembly  at  the  Hague,  on  the 
twenty-sixth  of  July,  1581,  making  few  changes  in  158 1 
their  ancient  laws,  declared  their  independence  by  ab- 
juring  their  king.  "  The  prince,"  said  they,  in  their 
manifesto,  "  is  made  for  the  subjects,  without  whom 
there  would  be  no  prince ;  and  if  instead  of  protecting 
them,  he  seeks  to  take  from  them  their  old  freedom 
and  use  them  as  slaves,  he  must  be  holden  not  a 
prince  but  a  tyrant,  and  may  justly  be  deposed  by 
the  authority  of  the  State."  A  rude  structure  of  a 
commonwealth  was  the  unpremeditated  result  of  the 
revolution. 

The  republic  of  the  United  Netherlands  was  by  its 
origin  and  its  nature  commercial.  The  device  on  an 
early  Dutch  coin  was  a  ship  laboring  on  the  billows 
without  oar  or  sails.  The  rendezvous  of  its  martyrs 
had  been  the  sea ;  the  muster  of  its  patriot  emigrants 
had  been  on  shipboard ;  and  they  had  hunted  their 
enemy,  as  the  whale-ships  pursue  their  game,  in  every 
corner  of  the  ocean.  The  two  leading  members  of 
the  confederacy,  from  their  situation,  could  seek  sub- 
sistence only  on  the  water.  Holland  is  but  a  penin- 
sula, intersected  by  navigable  rivers ;  protruding  it- 
self into  the  sea ;  crowded  with  a  dense  population 
on  a  soil  saved  from  the  deep  by  embankments,  and 
kept  dry  only  with  pumps  driven  by  windmills.  Its 
houses  were  rather  in  the  water  than  on  land. 

And  Zealand  is  composed  of  islands.  Its  inhabit- 
ants were  nearly  all  fishermen ;  its  villages  were  as 


260  AMERICAN   COLONIZATION 

CHAP,  nests  of  sea-fowl,  on  the  margin  of  the  ocean.  In 
V--Y-~  both  provinces  every  house  was  by  nature  a  nursery 
**'  of  sailors;  the  sport  of  children  was  among  the 
breakers  ;  their  boyish  pastimes  in  boats  ;  and  if  their 
first  excursions  were  but  voyages  to  some  neighboring 
port,  they  soon  braved  the  dangers  of  every  sea.  The 
states  advanced  to  sudden  opulence  ;  before  the  insur- 
rection, they  could  with  difficulty  keep  their  embank- 
ments in  repair  ;  and  now  they  were  also  able  to  sup- 
port large  fleets  and  armies.  Their  commerce  gathered 
into  their  harbors  the  fruits  of  the  wide  world.  Pro- 
ducing almost  no  grain  of  any  kind,  Holland  had  the 
best-supplied  granary  of  Europe  ;  without  fields  of 
flax  it  swarmed  with  weavers  of  linen  ;  destitute  of 
flocks,  it  became  the  centre  of  all  woollen  manufac- 
tures; and  provinces  which  had  not  a  forest,  built 
more  ships  than  all  Europe  besides.  They  connected 
hemispheres.  Their  enterprising  mariners  displayed 
the  flag  of  the  republic  from  Southern  Africa  to  the 
Arctic  circle.  The  ships  of  the  Dutch,  said  Raleigh, 
outnumber  those  of  England  and  ten  other  kingdoms. 
To  the  Italian  cardinal  the  number  seemed  infinite. 
Amsterdam  was  the  centre  of  the  commerce  of 
Europe.  The  sea  not  only  bathed  its  walls,  but 
flowed  through  its  streets  ;  and  its  merchantmen  lay 
so  crowded  together,  that  the  looker-on  from  the  ram- 
parts could  not  see  through  the  thick  forests  of  masts 
and  yards.  War  for  liberty  became  unexpectedly  a 
well-spring  of  opulence  ;  Holland  plundered  the  com- 
merce of  Spain  by  its  maritime  force,  and  supplanted 
its  rivals  in  the  gainful  traffic  with  the  Indies.  Lisbon 
and  Antwerp  were  despoiled;  Amsterdam,  the  depot 
of  the  merchandise  of  Europe  and  of  the  East,  was 


20.  "  '  become  beyond  dispute  the  first  commercial  city  of 


NETHEBLAND.  261 


the  world  ;  the  Tyre  of  modern  times  ;  the  Venice  of 

the  North  ;  the  queen  of  all  the  seas.  —  «  — 

In  1581,  the  year  after  Portugal  had  been  forcibly  15  81- 
annexed  to  Spain  and  the  Portuguese  settlements  in 
Asia  were  become  for  a  season  Spanish  provinces,  the 
epoch  of  the  independence  of  the  Netherlands,  Thomas 
Buts,  an  Englishman  who  had  five  times  crossed  the 
Atlantic,  offered  to  the  States  to  conduct  four  ships  of 
war  to  America.  The  adventure  was  declined  by  the 
government  ;  but  no  obstacles  were  offered  to  private 
enterprise.  Ten  years  afterwards,  William  Wsselinx,  1591. 
who  had  lived  some  years  in  Castile,  Portugal,  and 
the  Azores,  proposed  a  West  India  Company  ;  but  the 
dangers  of  the  undertaking  were  still  too  appalling. 

In  1594  the  port  of  Lisbon  was  closed  by  the  1594. 
King  of  Spain  against  the  Low  Countries.  Their  car- 
rying trade  in  Indian  goods  was  lost,  unless  their  ships 
could  penetrate  to  the  seas  of  Asia.  A  company  of 
merchants,  believing  that  the  coast  of  Siberia  fell 
away  to  the  south-east,  hoped  to  shorten  the  voyage 
at  least  eight  thousand  miles  by  using  a  north-eastern 
route.  A  double  expedition  was  therefore  sent  forth 
on  discovery  ;  two  flyboats  vainly  tried  to  pass  through 
the  straits  of  Veigatz,  while,  in  a  large  ship,  William 
Barentsen,  whom  Grotius  honored  as  the  peer  of  Co- 
lumbus, coasted  Nova  Zembla  to  the  seventy-seventh 
degree,  without  finding  a  passage. 

Netherlanders  in  the  service  of  Portugal  had  1595. 
visited  India,  Malacca,  China,  and  even  Japan.  Of 
these  Cornelius  Houtman,  in  April,  1595,  sailed  for 
India  by  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  before 
his  return,  circumnavigated  Java.  In  the  same  year 
Jacob  van  Heemskerk,  the  great  mariner  and  naval 
hero,  aided  by  Barentsen,  renewed  the  search  on  the 


262  AMERICAN   COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,  north-east,  but  attempted  in  vain  to  pass  to  the  south 

v—v— '  of  Nova  Zembla.     The  republic,  disheartened  by  the 

repeated  failure,  refused  to  fit  out  another  expedition ; 

1596.  but  the  city  of  Amsterdam,  in  1596,  despatched  two 
ships  under  Heemskerk  and  Barentsen  to  look  for  the 
open  sea,  which  it  had  been  said  was  to  be  found  to 
the  north  of  all  known  land.     Braver  men  never  bat- 
tled with  arctic  dangers  ;  they  discovered  the  jagged 
cliffs  of  Spitzbergen,  and  came  within  ten  degrees  of 
the  pole.     Then  Barentsen  sought  to  go  round  Nova 
Zembla,  and  when  his  ship  was  hopelessly  enveloped 
by  ice,  had  the  courage  to  encamp  his  crew  on  the 
desolate  northern  shore  of  the  island,  and  cheer  them 
during  a  winter,  rendered  horrible  by  famine,  cold,  and 
the  fierce  attacks  of  huge  white  bears,  whom  hunger 
had  maddened.     When  spring  came,  the  gallant  com- 
pany, traversing  more   than   sixteen   hundred  miles 
in  two  open  boats,  were  tossed  for  three  months  by 
storms  and  among  icebergs,  before  they  could  reach 
the  shelter  of  the  White  Sea.     Barentsen  sunk  under 
his  trials,  but  was  engaged  in  poring  over  a  sea-chart 
as  he  died.    The  expeditions  of  the  Dutch  were  with- 
out a  parallel  for  daring. 

1597.  It  was  not  not  till  1597  that  voyages  were  under- 
taken from  Holland  to  America.     In  that  year  Bikker 
of  Amsterdam,  and  Leyen  of  Enkhuisen,  each  formed 
a  company  to  traffic  with  the  West  Indies.     The  com- 
merce  was  continued   with   success;  but   Asia   had 

1598.  greater  attractions.     In  1598  two  and  twenty  ships 
sailed  from  Dutch  harbors  for  the  Indian  seas,  in  part 
by  the  Cape  of  Good   Hope,  in  part  through  the 

1600.  Straits  of  Magellan.  When,  in  1600,  after  years  of 
discussion,  a  plan  for  a  West  India  Company  was  re- 
duced to  writing,  and  communicated  to  the  States 


KEW   NETHERLAND.  263 

General,  it  was  not  adopted,  though  its  principle  was  CHAP. 
approved.  - — ,— - 

But  the  zeal  of  merchants  and  of  statesmen  was 
concentred  on  the  East,  where  jealousy  of  the  Por- 
tuguese inclined  the  native  princes  and  peoples  to 
welcome  the  Dutch  as  allies  and  protectors.  In 
March,  1602,  by  the  prevailing  influence  of  Olden  16 02. 
Barneveldt,  the  advocate  of  Holland,  the  Dutch  East 
India  Company  was  chartered  with  the  exclusive  right 
to  commerce  beyond  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  on  the 
one  side,  and  beyond  the  Straits  of  Magellan  on  the 
other.  The  States,  unwilling  to  pledge  themselves  to 
the  chances  of  war,  purposely  granted  all  powers  re- 
quisite for  conquests,  colonization,  and  government. 
In  the  age  of  feudalism,  privileged  bodies  formed  the 
.balance  of  the  commercial  and  manufacturing  inter- 
ests against  the  aristocracy  of  the  sword,  and  suited 
the  genius  of  the  republic.  The  Dutch  East  India 
Company  is  the  first  in  the  series  of  great  European 
trading  corporations,  and  became  the  model  for  those 
of  France  and  England. 

As  years  rolled  away,  the  progress  of  English 
commerce  in  the  west  awakened  the  attention  of  the 
Netherlands.  England  and  Holland  had  been  allies  in 
the  contest  against  Spain ;  had  both  spread  their  sails 
on  the  Indian  seas ;  had  both  become  competitors  for 
possessions  in  America.  In  the  same  year  in  which  1607. 
Smith  embarked  for  Virginia,  vast  designs  were  ripen- 
ing among  the  Dutch ;  and  Grotius,  himself  of  the 
commission  to  which  the  affair  was  referred,  acquaints 
us  with  the  opinions  of  his  countrymen.  The  United 
Provinces,  it  was  said,  abounded  in  mariners  and  in 
unemployed  capital :  not  the  plunder  of  Spanish  com- 
merce, not  India  itself,  America  alone,  so  rich  in 


264  AMERICAN   COLOIOZATION. 

CHAP,  herbs  of  healing  virtues,  in  forests,  and  in  precious 
v — <~^  ores,  could  exhaust  their  enterprise.  Their  merchants 
1607.  had  perused  every  work  on  the  Western  World,  had 
gleaned  intelligence  from  the  narratives  of  sailors ; 
and  now  they  planned  a  privileged  company,  which 
should  count  the  States  General  among  its  stockhold- 
ers, and  possess,  exclusively,  the  liberty  of  approach- 
ing America  from  Newfoundland  to  the  Straits  of 
Magellan,  and  Africa  from  the  tropics  to  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  The  Spaniards  are  feeblest,  it  was  con- 
fidently urged,  where  they  are  believed  to  be  strong- 
est ;  there  would  be  no  war  but  on  the  water,  the 
home  of  the  Batavians.  It  would,  moreover,  be  glo- 
rious to  bear  Christianity  to  the  heathen,  and  rescue 
them  from  their  oppressors.  Principalities  might 
easily  be  won  from  the  Spaniards,  whose  scattered  cit- 
adels protected  but  a  narrow  zone. 

To  the  eagerness  of  enterprise,  it  was  replied,  that 
war  had  its  uncertain  events,  the  sea  its  treacheries ; 
the  Spaniards  would  learn  naval  warfare  by  exercise ; 
and  the  little  fleets  of  the  provinces  could  hardly 
blockade  an  ocean,  or  battle  for  a  continent;  the 
costs  of  defence  would  exceed  the  public  resources ; 
home  would  be  lost  in  the  search  for  a  foreign  world, 
of  which  the  air  breathed  pestilence,  the  natives  were 
cannibals,  the  unoccupied  regions  were  hopelessly 
wild.  The  party  that  desired  peace  with  Spain,  and 
counted  Grotius  and  Olden  Barneveldt  among  its 
leaders,  for  a  long  time  succeeded  in  defeating  every 
effort  at  Batavian  settlements  in  the  West. 

While  the  negotiations  with  Spain  postponed  the 
formation  of  a  West  India  Company,  the  Dutch 
found  their  way  to  the  United  States  through  an- 
other channel. 


NEW    NETHEKLAND.  265 

In  1  GOT,  a  company  of  London  merchants,  excited  CHAP. 
by  the  immense  profits  of  voyages  to  the  East,  con-  *— > — 
tributed  the  means  for  a  new  attempt  to  discover  the  1 6  °  tj- 
near  passage  to  Asia ;   and  HENKY  HUDSON  was  the 
chosen  leader  of  the  expedition.     With  his  only  son 
for  his  companion,  he  coasted  the  shores  of  Greenland, 
and  hesitated  whether  to  attempt  the  circumnaviga- 
tion of  that  country,  or  the  passage  across  the  North. 
He  came  nearer  the  pole  than  any  earlier  navigator ; 
but  after  he  had  renewed  the  discovery  of  Spitzber- 
gen,  vast  masses  of  ice  compelled  his  return. 

The  next  year  beheld  Hudson  once  more  on  a  1608. 
voyage,  to  ascertain  if  the  seas  which  divide  Spitzber- 
gen  from  Nova  Zembla,  open  a  path  to  China. 

The  failure  of  two  expeditions  daunted  Hudson's  1 6  o  9. 
employers ;  they  could  not  daunt  the  great  navigator. 
The  discovery  of  the  passage  was  the  desire  of  his 
life ;  and  repairing  to  Holland,  he  offered  his  services 
to  the  Dutch  East  India  Company.  The  Zealanders, 
disheartened  by  former  ill-success,  made  objections ; 
but  they  were  overrruled  by  the  directors  for  Amster- 
dam; and  on  the  fourth  day  of  April,  1609,  five  days 
before  the  truce  with  Spain,  the  HALF  MOON,  a  yacht 
of  about  eighty  tons  burden,  commanded  by  Hudson 
and  manned  by  a  mixed  crew  of  Netherlander  and 
Englishmen,  his  son  being  of  the  number,  set  sail  for 
China  by  way  of  the  north-east.  On  the  fifth  day  of 
May  he  had  attained  the  height  of  the  north  cape  of 
Norway ;  but  fogs  and  fields  of  ice  near  Nova  Zembla 
closed  against  him  the  straits  of  Vaigatz.  Remem- 
bering the  late  accounts  from  Virginia,  Hudson,  with 
prompt  decision,  turned  to  the  west,  to  look  for  some 
opening  north  of  the  Chesapeake.  On  the  thirtieth 

VOL.  ii.  34 


266  AMERICAN   COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,  of  May  lie  took  in  water  at  the  Faro  isles,  and  in 
^-v—  June  was  on  the  track  of  Frobisher.  Early  in  July, 
1609.  ynih  foremast  carried  away  and  canvas  rent  in  a  gale, 
he  found  himself  among  fishermen  from  France  on  the 
Banks  of  Newfoundland.  On  the  eighteenth  he  en- 
tered a  very  good  harbor  on  the  coast  of  Maine, 
mended  his  sails,  and  refitted  his  ship  with  a  foremast 
from  the  woods.  On  the  fourth  of  August,  a  boat 
was  sent  on  shore  at  the  headland  which  Gosnold 
seven  years  before  had  called  Cape  Cod,  and  which  was 
now  named  New  Holland ;  and  on  the  eighteenth  of 
August,  the  Half  Moon  rode  at  sea  off  the  Chesapeake 
Bay,  which  was  known  to  be  the  entrance  to  the 
river  of  King  James  in  Virginia.  Here  Hudson 
changed  his  course.  On  the  twenty-eighth  he  entered 
the  great  bay,  now  known  as  Delaware ;  and  gave  one 
day  to  its  rivers,  its  currents  and  soundings,  and  the 
aspect  of  the  country.  Then  sailing  to  the  north 
along  the  low  sandy  coast  that  appeared  like  broken 
islands  in  the  surf,  on  the  second  of  September  he  was 
attracted  by  the  "  pleasant  sight  of  the  high  hills  "  of 
Navesink.  On  the  following  day,  as  he  approached 
the  "bold"  land,  three  separate  rivers  seemed  to  be 
in  sight.  He  stood  towards  the  northernmost,  which 
was  probably  Rockaway  inlet,  but  finding  only  ten 
feet  of  water  on  its  bar,  he  cast  about  to  the  south- 
ward, and  almost  at  the  time  when  Champlain  was  in- 
vading New  York  from  the  North,  he  sounded  his 
way  to  an  anchorage  within  Sandy  Hook. 

.  On  the  fourth  the  ship  went  further  up  the  Horse 
Shoe  to  a  very  good  harbor  near  the  New  Jersey 
shore ;  and  that  same  day  the  people  of  the  country 
came  on  board  to  traffic  for  knives  and  beads.  On 
the  fifth  a  landing  was  made  from  the  Half  Moon. 


NEW    NETHEELAND.  26T 

When  Hudson  stepped  on  shore,  the  natives  stood  CHAP. 
round  and  sang  in  their  fashion.  Men,  women,  and  v — <— ' 
children  were  feather-mantled,  or  clad  in  loose  furs.  1 6  ° 9- 
Their  food  was  Indian  corn,  which,  when  roasted,  was 
pronounced  to  be  excellent.  They  always  carried  with 
them  maize  and  tobacco.  Some  had  pipes  of  red  cop- 
per, with  earthen  bowls  and  copper  ornaments  round 
their  necks.  Their  boats  were  made  each  of  a  single 
hollowed  tree.  Their  weapons  were  bows  and  ar- 
rows, pointed  with  sharp  stones.  They  slept  abroad 
on  mats  of  bulrushes,  or  on  the  leaves  of  trees.  They 
were  friendly,  but  thievish,  and  crafty  in  carrying 
away  what  they  fancied.  The  woods,  it  was  specially 
noticed,  abounded  in  "  goodly  oakes,"  and  from  that 
day  the  new  comers  never  ceased  to  admire  the  great- 
ness of  the  trees. 

On  the  sixth,  John  Colman  and  four  others,  in  a 
boat,  sounded  the  Narrows,  and  passed  through  Kill 
van  Kull  to  Newark  bay.  The  air  was  very  sweet, 
and  the  land  as  pleasant  with  grass  and  flowers  and 
trees,  as  they  had  ever  seen ;  but  on  the  return,  the 
boat  was  attacked  by  two  canoes  and  Colman  killed 
by  an  arrow. 

On  Wednesday,  the  ninth,  Hudson  moved  cau- 
tiously from  the  lower  bay  into  the  Narrows,  and  on 
the  eleventh,  by  aid  of  a  very  light  wind,  he  went 
into  the  great  river  of  the  north,  and  rode  all  night 
in  a  harbor,  which  was  safe  against  every  wind. 

On  the  morning  of  the  twelfth,  the  natives,  in 
eight  and  twenty  canoes,  crowded  about  him,  bring- 
ing beans  and  very  good  oysters.  The  day  was 
fair  and  warm,  though  the  light  wind  was  from  the 
north;  and  as  Hudson,  under  the  brightest  autumnal 
sun,  gazed  around,  having  behind  him  the  Narrows 


268  AMEKICAN    COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,  opening  to  the  ocean,  before  him  the  noble  stream 

— v— '  flowing  from  above  Weehawken  with  a  broad,  deep 

1609.  channel  between   forest-crowned   palisades   and   the 

gently  swelling  banks  of  Manhattan,  he  made  a  record 

that  "  it  was  as  fair  a  land  as  can  be  trodden  by  the 

foot  of  man."     That  night  he  anchored  just  above 

Manhattanville.     The  flood-tide  of  the  next  morning 

and  of  evening  brought  him  near  Yonkers.     On  the 

fourteenth    a  strong    south-east   wind    wafted  him 

rapidly  into  the  Highlands. 

At  daybreak,  on  the  fifteenth,  mists  hung  over 
the  landscape,  but  as  they  rose,  the  sun  revealed  the 
neighborhood  of  West  Point.  With  a  south  wind 
the  Half  Moon  soon  emerged  from  the  mountains 
that  rise  near  the  water's  edge ;  sweeping  upwards, 
it  passed  the  elbow  at  Hyde  Park,  and  at  night 
anchored  a  little  below  Red  Hook,  within  the  shadow 
of  the  majestic  Catskill  range,  which  it  was  noticed 
stands  at  a  distance  from  the  river. 

Trafficking  with  the  natives,  who  were  "very 
loving,"  taking  in  fresh  water,  grounding  at  low  tide 
on  a  shoal,  the  Netherlander,  on  the  evening  of  the 
seventeenth,  reached  no  higher  than  the  latitude  of 
about  42°,  18',  just  above  the  present  city  of  Hudson. 
The  next  day  Hudson  went  on  shore  in  one  of  the 
boats  of  the  natives  with  an  aged  chief  of  a  small 
tribe  of  the  River  Indians.  He  was  taken  to  a  house 
well  constructed  of  oak  bark,  circular  in  shape,  and 
arched  in  the  roof,  the  granary  of  the  beans  and 
maize  of  the  last  year's  harvest ;  while  outside  enough 
of  them  lay  drying  to  load  three  ships.  Two  mats 
were  spread  out  as  seats  for  the  strangers;  food 
was  immediately  served  in  neat  red  wooden  bowls ; 
men,  who  were  sent  at  once  with  bows  and  arrows 


NEW   NETHEELAND.  269 

for  game,  soon  returned  with  pigeons ;  a  fat  dog,  too,  CHAP. 
was   killed;   and  haste    made   to   prepare    a   feast.  — ^ 
When  Hudson  refused  to  wait,  they  supposed  him  to  16 09. 
be  afraid  of  their  weapons ;  and  taking  their  arrows, 
they  broke  them  in  pieces  and  threw  them  into  the 
fire.     The  country  was  pleasant  and  fruitful,  bearing 
wild  grapes.     "  Of  all  lands  on  which  I  ever  set  my 
foot,"  says  Hudson,  "this   is   the   best   for  tillage." 
The    River  Indians,  for  more  than  a  century,  pre- 
served the  memory  of  his  visit. 

The  Half  Moon,  on  the  nineteenth,  drew  near  the 
landing  of  Kinderhook,  where  the  Indians  brought 
on  board  skins  of  beaver  ^ind  otter.  Hudson  ven- 
tured no  higher  with  the  yacht ;  an  exploring  boat 
ascended  a  little  above  Albany  to  where  the  river 
was  but  seven  feet  deep,  and  the  soundings  grew 
uncertain. 

So,  on  the  twenty-third,  Hudson  turned  his  prow 
towards  Holland,  leaving  the  friendly  tribes  persuaded 
that  the  Dutch  would  revisit  them  the  next  year. 
As  he  went  down  the  river,  imagination  peopled  the 
region  with  towns.  A  party  which,  somewhere  in 
Ulster  county,  went  to  walk  on  the  west  bank,  found 
an  excellent  soil,  with  large  trees  of  oak  and  walnut 
and  chesnut.  The  land  near  Newburgh  seemed  a  very 
pleasant  site  for  a  city.  On  the  first  of  October  Hud- 
son passed  below  the  mountains.  On  the  fourth,  not 
without  more  than  one  conflict  with  the  savages,  he 
sailed  out  of  "  the  great  mouth  of  THE  GEEAT  EIVEE  " 
which  bears  his  name ;  and  about  the  season  of  the 
return  of  John  Smith  from  Virginia  to  England,  he 
steered  for  Europe,  leaving  to  its  solitude  the  beau- 
tiful land  which  he  admired  beyond  any  country  in 
the  world. 


270  AMERICAN    COLONIZATION. 

CHAP.         Sombre  forests  shed  a  melancholy  grandeur  over 
— ^^  the  useless  magnificence  of  nature,  and  hid  in  their 

O  / 

3609.  deep  shades  the  rich  soil  which  no  sun  had  ever 
warmed.  No  axe  had  levelled  the  giant  progeny  of 
the  crowded  groves,  in  which  the  fantastic  forms 
of  limbs,  withered  or  riven  by  lightning,  contrasted 
strangely  with  the  verdure  of  a  younger  growth  of 
branches.  The  wanton  grape-vine,  fastening  its  leafy 
coils  to  the  top  of  the  tallest  forest-tree,  swung  with 
every  breeze,  like  the  loosened  shrouds  of  a  ship. 
Trees  might  everywhere  be  seen  breaking  from  their 
root  in  the  marshy  soil,  and  threatening  to  fall  with 
the  first  rude  gust;  while  the  ground  was  strown 
with  the  ruins  of  former  woods,  over  which  a  pro- 
fusion of  wild  flowers  wasted  their  freshness  in 
mockery  of  the  gloom.  Reptiles  sported  in  the  stag- 
nant pools,  or  crawled  unharmed  over  piles  of 
mouldering  logs.  The  spotted  deer  couched  among 
the  thickets ;  but  not  to  hide,  for  there  was  no  pur- 
suer ;  and  there  were  none  but  wild  animals  to  crop 
the  uncut  herbage  of  the  prairies.  Silence  reigned, 
broken,  it  may  have  been,  by  the  flight  of  land- 
birds  or  the  flapping  of  water-fowl,  and  rendered 
more  dismal  by  the  howl  of  beasts  of  prey.  The 
streams,  not  yet  limited  to  a  channel,  spread  over 
sand-bars,  tufted  with  copses  of  willow,  or  waded 
through  wastes  of  reeds ;  or  slowly  but  surely  under- 
mined the  groups  of  sycamores  that  grew  by  their 
side.  The  smaller  brooks  spread  out  into  sedgy 
swamps,  that  were  overhung  by  clouds  of  mosquitoes ; 
masses  of  decaying  vegetation  fed  the  exhalations 
with  the  seeds  of  pestilence,  and  made  the  balmy  air 
of  the  summer's  evening  as  deadly  as  it  seemed  grate- 
ful. Life  and  death  were  hideously  mingled.  The 


ISTEW   ISTETHEKLAim  271 

horrors  of  corruption  frowned  on  the  fruitless  fertility  CHAP. 
of  uncultivated  nature.  — . — • 

And  man,  the  occupant  of  the  soil,  was  untamed  1 6  ° 9- 
as  the  savage  scene,  in  harmony  with  the  rude  nature 
by  which  he  was  surrounded ;  a  vagrant  over  the 
continent,  in  constant  warfare  with  his  fellow-man ; 
the  bark  of  the  birch  his  canoe ;  strings  of  shells  his 
ornaments,  his  record,  and  his  coin  ;  the  roots  of  un- 
cultivated plants  among  his  resources  for  food ;  his 
knowledge  in  architecture  surpassed  both  in  strength 
and  durability  by  the  skill  of  the  beaver;  bended 
saplings  the  beams  of  his  house;  the  branches  and 
rind  of  trees  its  roof;  drifts  of  leaves  his  couch; 
mats  of  bulrushes  his  protection  against  the  winter's 
cold ;  his  religion  the  adoration  of  nature ;  his  morals 
the  promptings  of  undisciplined  instinct ;  disputing 
with  the  wolves  and  bears  the  lordship  of  the  soil, 
and  dividing  with  the  squirrel  the  wild  fruits  with 
which  the  universal  woodlands  abounded. 

The  history  of  a  country  is  modified  by  its  climate, 
and,  in  many  of  its  features,  determined  by  its  geo- 
graphical situation.  The  region  which  Hudson  had 
discovered,  possessed  near  the  sea  an  unrivalled  har- 
bor ;  a  river  that  admits  the  tide  far  into  the  interior ; 
on  the  north,  the  chain  of  great  lakes,  which  have 
their  springs  in  the  heart  of  the  continent ;  within  its 
own  limits  the  sources  of  rivers  that  flow  to  the  Gulfs 
of  Mexico  and  St.  Lawrence,  and  to  the  Bays  of 
Chesapeake  and  Delaware ;  of  which,  long  before 
Europeans  anchored  off  Sandy  Hook,  the  warriors  of 
the  Five  Nations  availed  themselves  in  their  excur- 
sions to  Quebec,  to  the  Ohio,  or  the  Susquehanna. 
With  just  sufficient  difficulties  to  irritate,  and  not 
enough  to  dishearten,  New  York  united  richest  lands 


272  AMERICAN   COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,  with  the  highest  adaptation  to  foreign  and  domestic 

— y— '  commerce. 

How  changed  is  the  scene  from  the  wild  country 
on  which  Hudson  gazed  !  The  earth  glows  with  the 
colors  of  civilization ;  the  meadows  are  enamelled  with 
choicest  grasses ;  woodlands  and  cultivated  fields  are 
harmoniously  blended ;  the  birds  of  spring  find  their 
delight  in  orchards  and  trim  gardens,  variegated  with 
selected  plants  from  every  temperate  zone ;  while  the 
brilliant  flowers  of  the  tropics  bloom  from  the  win- 
dows of  the  green-house  or  mock  at  winter  in  the 
saloon.  The  yeoman,  living  like  a  good  neighbor 
near  the  fields  he  cultivates,  glories  in  the  fruitfulness 
of  the  valleys,  and  counts  with  honest  exultation  the 
flocks  and  herds  that  browse  in  safety  on  the  hills. 
The  thorn  has  given  way  to  the  rosebush ;  the  culti- 
vated vine  clambers  over  rocks  where  the  brood  of 
serpents  used  to  nestle ;  while  industry  smiles  at  the 
changes  she  has  wrought,  and  inhales  the  bland  air 
which  now  has  health  on  its  wings. 

And  man  is  still  in  harmony  with  nature,  which 
he  has  subdued,  developed,  and  adorned.  For  him 
the  rivers  that  flow  to  remotest  climes,  mingle  their 
waters;  for  him  the  lakes  gain  new  outlets  to  the 
ocean ;  for  him  the  arch  spans  the  flood,  and  science 
spreads  iron  pathways  to  the  recent  wilderness ;  for 
him  the  hills  yield  up  the  shining  marble  and  the 
enduring  granite ;  for  him  immense  rafts  bring  down 
the  forests  of  the  interior ;  for  him  the  marts  of  the 
city  gather  the  produce  of  all  climes,  and  libraries 
collect  the  works  of  every  language  and  age.  The 
passions  of  society  are  chastened  into  purity ;  man- 
ners are  made  benevolent  by  refinement;  and  the 
virtue  of  the  country  is  the  guardian  of  its  peace. 


NEW   KETIIERLAim  273 

Science  investigates  the  powers  of  every  plant  and  CHAP. 
mineral,  to  find  medicines  for  disease ;  schools  of  sur-  - — ^ 
gery  rival  the  establishments  of  the  old  world ;  the 
genius  of  letters  begins  to  unfold  his  powers  in  the 
warm  sunshine  of  public  favor.  An  active  daily  press, 
vigilant  from  party  interests,  free  even  to  dissolute- 
ness, watches  the  progress  of  society,  and  communi- 
cates every  fact  that  can  interest  humanity;  and 
commerce  pushes  its  wharves  into  the  sea,  blocks  up 
the  wide  rivers  with  its  fleets,  and  sends  its  ships,  the 
pride  of  naval  architecture,  to  every  zone. 

A  happy  return  voyage  brought  the  Half  Moon  i  e  o  9. 
into  Dartmouth  on  the  seventh  of  November.  There 
the  vessel  was  arbitrarily  delayed,  and  the  services  of 
its  commander  and  English  seamen  were  claimed  by 
their  liege.  Hudson  could  only  forward  to  his  em- 
ployers an  account  of  his  discoveries ;  he  never  again 
saw  Holland,  or  the  land  which  he  eulogized. 

The  Dutch  East  India  Company  refused  to  search  1610. 
further  for  the  north-western  passage ;  but  English 
merchants,  renewing  courage,  formed  a  company, 
and  Hudson,  in  "  The  Discovery,"  engaged  again  in 
his  great  pursuit.  He  had  already  explored  the 
north-east  and  the  north,  and  the  region  between  the 
Chesapeake  and  Maine.  There  was  no  room  for  hope 
but  to  the  north  of  Newfoundland.  Proceeding  by 
way  of  Iceland,  where  "  the  famous  Hecla  "  was  cast- 
ing out  fire,  passing  Greenland  and  Frobisher's  Straits, 
he  sailed  on  the  second  of  August,  1610,  into  the  Straits 
which  bear  his  name,  and  into  which  no  one  had  gone 
before  him.  As  he  came  out  from  the  passage  upon 
the  wide  gulf,  he  believed  that  he  beheld  c'  a  sea  to 
the  westward,"  so  that  the  short  way  to  the  Pacific 
was  found.  How  great  was  his  disappointment,  when 


274  AMERICAN    COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,  he  found  himself  embayed  in  a  labyrinth  without  end. 
*— * —  Still  confident  of  ultimate  success,  the  determined 
1610.  mariner  resolved  on  wintering  in  the  bay,  that  he 
might  perfect  his  discovery  in  the  spring.  His  crew 
murmured  at  the  sufferings  of  a  winter  for  which  no 
preparation  had  been  made.  At  length  the  late 
and  anxiously  expected  spring  burst  forth;  but  it 
opened  in  vain  for  Hudson.  Provisions  were  ex- 
hausted ;  he  divided  the  last  bread  among  his  men, 
and  prepared  for  them  a  bill  of  return;  and  "he 
wept  as  he  gave  it  them."  Believing  himself  almost 
on  the  point  of  succeeding,  where  Spaniards,  and 
English,  and  Danes,  and  Dutch,  had  failed,  he  left  his 
anchoring-place  to  steer  for  Europe.  For  two  days 
the  ship  was  encompassed  by  fields  of  ice,  and  the 
discontent  of  the  crew  broke  forth  into  mutiny. 
Hudson  was  seized,  and,  with  his  only  son  and  seven 
others,  four  of  whom  were  sick,  was  thrown  into  the 
shallop.  Seeing  his  commander  thus  exposed,  Philip 
Staffe,  the  carpenter,  demanded  and  gained  leave  to 
share  his  fate  ;  and  just  as  the  ship  made  its  way  out 
of  the  ice,  on  a  midsummer  day,  in  a  latitude  where 
the  sun,  at  that  season,  hardly  goes  down  and  evening 
twilight  mingles  with  the  dawn,  the  shallop  was  cut 
loose.  What  became  of  Hudson  ?  Did  he  die  miser- 
ably of  starvation  ?  Did  he  reach  land  to  perish  from 
the  fury  of  the  natives  ?  Was  he  crushed  between 
ribs  of  ice  ?  The  returning  ship  encountered  storms, 
by  which  he  was  probably  overwhelmed.  The  gloomy 
waste  of  waters  which  bears  his  name,  is  his  tomb  and 
his  monument. 

The  "  Half  Moon,"  having  been  detained  for  many 


NEW   NETHERLAim  275 

montlis  in  Dartmouth  by  the  jealousy  of  the  English,  CHAP. 
did  not  reach  Amsterdam  till  the  middle  of  July,  1610,  >— *-^ 
too  late,  perhaps,  in  the  season  for   the  immediate  1610. 
equipment  of  a  new  voyage.     At  least  no  definite 
trace  of  a  voyage  to  Manhattan  in  that  year  has  been 
discovered.     Besides  :  to  avoid   a  competition  with 
England,  the  Dutch  ambassador  at  London,  that  same  head's 
year,  proposed  a  joint  colonization  of  Virginia,  as  well  S'l's. 
as  a  partnership  in  the  East  India  trade ;  but  the  offer 
was  put  aside  from  fear  of  the  superior  "  art  and  in- 
dustry of  the  Dutch." 

The  development  of  a  lucrative  fur-trade  in  Hud-  1611. 
son's  river  was  therefore  left  to  unprotected  private 
adventure.  In  1613,  or  in  one  of  the  two  previous 
years,  the  experienced  Hendrik  Christiaensen  of  Cleve 
"  and  the  worthy  Adriaen  Block  chartered  a  ship  with 
the  skipper  Ryser,"  and  made  a  voyage  into  the  waters 
of  New  York,  bringing  back  rich  furs,  and  also  two 
sons  of  native  sachems. 

The  States  General  still  hesitated  to  charter  a 
"West  India  Company ;  but  on  the  twenty-seventh  of 
March,  1614,  they  ordained  that  private  adventurers  1614. 
might  enjoy  an  exclusive  privilege  for  four  successive 
voyages  to  any  passage,  haven,  or  country  they  should 
thereafter  find.  With  such  encouragement,  a  com- 
pany of  merchants,  in  the  same  year,  sent  five  small 
vessels,  of  which  the  "  Fortune,"  of  Amsterdam,  had 
Christiaensen  for  its  commander ;  the  "  Tiger,"  of  the 
same  port,  Adriaen  Block ;  the  "  Fortune,"  of  Hoorn, 
Cornells  Jacobsen  May,  to  extend  the  discoveries  of 
Hudson  as  well  as  to  trade  with  the  natives. 

The  "  Tiger "  was  accidentally  burned  near  the 


275*  AMEEICAN   COLONIZATION. 


island  of  Manhattan  ;  but  Adriaen  Block,  building  a 
^  —  yacht  of  sixteen  tons  burden,  which  he  named  the 
1  4.  ((  Unreg^"  plied  forth  to  explore  the  vicinity.  First 
of  European  navigators  he  steered  through  Hell  Gate, 
passed  the  archipelago  near  Norwalk,  and  discovered 
the  river  of  Red  Hills,  which  we  call  the  Housatonic. 
From  the  bay  of  Newhaven  he  turned  to  the  east,  and 
ascended  the  beautiful  river  which  he  named  the 
Freshwater,  but  which,,  to  this  hour,  keeps  its  Indian 
name  of  Connecticut.  Near  the  site  of  Wethersfield 
he  came  upon  one  Indian  tribe;  just  above  Hartford, 
upon  another  ;  and  he  heard  tales  of  the  Horicans, 
who  dwelt  in  the  west,  and  moved  over  lakes  in  bark 
canoes.  The  Pequods  he  found  on  the  banks  of  their 
river.  At  Montauk  Point,  then  occupied  by  a  savage 
nation,  he  reached  the  ocean,  proving  the  land  east  of 
the  Sound  to  be  an  island.  Thus  far  he  was  a  dis- 
coverer. The  island  which  bears  his  name,  Verazzano, 
nearly  a  century  before,  had  named  Claudia.  After 
exploring  both  channels  of  the  island,  which  owes  to 
him  the  name  of  Roode  Eiland,  now  Rhode  Island, 
the  mariner  from  Holland  imposed  the  names  of 
places  in  his  native  land  on  groups  in  the  Atlantic, 
which,  years  before,  Gosnold  and  other  English  navi- 
gators had  visited.  The  Unrest  sailed  beyond  Cape 
Cod,  and  while  John  Smith  was  making  maps  of  the 
bays  and  coasts  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  Adriaen 
Block  traced  the  shore  as  far  at  least  as  Nahant. 
Then  leaving  the  American-built  yacht  at  Cape  Cod, 
to  be  used  by  Cornells  Hendricksen  in  the  fur-trade, 
Block  sailed  in  Christiaensen's  ship  for  Holland. 
The  States  General,  in  an  Assembly  where  Olden 


NEW   NETHEELAND.  276 


Barneveldt  was  present,  readily  granted  to  the  united 
company  of  merchants  interested  in  these  discoveries,  ^  — 
a  three  years'  monopoly  of  trade  with  the  territory  1  6  14- 
between  Virginia  and  New  France,  from  forty  to  forty-  Brod- 
five  degrees  of  latitude.     Their  charter,  given  on  the  cowi 
eleventh  of  October,  1614,  names  the  extensive  re-  Sen'ts, 
gion   NEW   NETHERLAND.     Its   northern  part   John 
Smith  had  that  same  year  called  NEW  ENGLAND. 

To  prosecute  their  commerce  with  the  natives,  1615. 
Christiaensen  built  for  the  company,  on  Castle  Island, 
south  of  the  present  city  of  Albany,  a  truck-house  and 
military  post.  The  building  was  thirty-six  feet  by 
twenty-six,  the  stockade  fifty-eight  feet  square  ;  the 
moat  eighteen  feet  wide.  The  garrison  was  composed 
of  ten  or  twelve  men.  The  fort,  which  may  have  been 
begun  in  1614,  which  was  certainly  finished  in  1615, 
was  called  Nassau  ;  the  river  for  a  time  was  known  as 
the  Maurice.  With  the  Five  Nations  a  friendship  grew 
up,  which  was  soon  ratified  according  to  the  usages  of 
the  Iroquois,  and  during  the  power  of  the  Dutch  was 
never  broken.  Such  is  the  beginning  of  Albany  :  it 
was  the  outpost  of  the  Netherland  fur-trade. 

The  United  Provinces,  now  recognised  even  by 
Spain  as  free  countries,  provinces,  and  states,  set  no 
bounds  to  their  enterprise.  The  world  seemed  not  too 
large  for  their  commerce  under  the  genial  influence  of 
liberty,  achieved  after  a  struggle,  longer  and  more 
desperate  than  that  of  Greece  with  Persia.  This  is 
the  golden  age  of  their  trade  with  Japan,  and  the 
epoch  of  their  alliance  with  the  Emperor  of  Ceylon. 
In  1611  their  ships  once  again  braved  the  frosts  of 
the  Arctic  circle  in  search  of  a  new  way  to  China  ; 


276*  AMERICAN   COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,  and  it  was  a  Dutch  discoverer,  Schouten,  from  Hoorri, 

XV. 

- — ^  who,  in  1616,  left  the  name  of  his  own  beloved  sea- 
1616.  port  on  the  southernmost  point  of  South  America. 
In  the  same  year  a  report  was  made  of  further  dis- 
covei>ies  in  North  America.     Three  Netherlander — 
w^°  wen*  UP  the  Mohawk  valley,  struck  a  branch 
of  °f  *^e  Delaware,  and  made  their  way  to  Indians  near 
?9,Io.    *ne  si*6  °f  Philadelphia — were  found  by  Cornells  Hen- 
Jhani*"  dricksen,  as  he  came  in  the  "  Unrest "  to  explore  the 
•      bay  and  rivers  of  Delaware.     On  his  return  to  Hol- 
land in  1616,  the  merchants  by  whom  he  had  been 
employed  claimed  the  discovery  of  the  country  be- 
tween thirty-eight  and  forty  degrees.     He  described 
the  inhabitants  as  trading  in  sables,  furs,  and  other 
skins ;  the  land  as  a  vast  forest,  abounding  in  bucks 
and  does,  in  turkeys  and  partridges ;  the  climate  tem- 
perate, like  that  of  Holland ;   the  trees  mantled  by 
the  vine.     But  the  States  General  refused  to  grant  a 
monopoly  of  trade. 

1618.  On  the  first  day  of  January,  1618,  the  exclusive 
privilege  conceded  to  the  company  of  merchants  for 
New  Netherland,  expired ;  but  voyages  continued  to 
be  made  by  their  agents  and  by  rival  enterprise. 
The  fort  near  Albany  having  been  destroyed  by  a 
flood,  a  new  post  was  taken  on  Norman's  Kill.  But 
the  strife  of  political  parties  still  retarded  the  estab- 
lishment of  permanent  settlements.  By  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Low  Countries,  the  municipal  officers 
who  were  named  by  the  stadtholder  or  were  self- 
renewed  on  the  principle  of  close  corporations,  ap- 
pointed delegates  to  the  provincial  states ;  and  these 
again,  a  representative  to  the  States  General  The 


NEW    NETHEKLAND.  277 

States,  the  true  personation  of  a  fixed  commercial  aris-  CHAP. 
tocracy,  resisted  popular  innovations ;  and  the  same  — ,-— ' 
instinct  which  led  the  Romans  to  elevate  Julius  Caesar,  1 6 1 8. 
the  commons  of  England  to  sustain  Henry  VII.,  the 
Danes  to  confer  hereditary  power  on  the  descendants 
of  Frederic  III.,  the  French  to  substitute  absolute  for 
feudal  monarchy,  induced  the  people  of  Holland  to 
favor  the  stadtholder.  The  division  extended  to  do- 
mestic politics,  theology,  and  international  intercourse. 
The  friends  of  the  stadtholder  asserted  sovereignty 
for  the  States  General;  while  the  party  of  Olden 
Barneveldt  and  Grotius,  with  greater  reason  in  point 
of  historic  facts,  claimed  sovereignty  exclusively  for 
the  provincial  assemblies.  Prince  Maurice,  who  de- 
sired to  engage  again  in  war  with  Spain,  favored  colo- 
nization in  America;  the  aristocratic  party,  fearing 
the  increase  of  executive  power,  opposed  colonization 
because  it  might  lead  to  new  collisions.  The  Gomar- 
ists,  who  satisfied  the  natural  passion  for  equality  by 
denying  personal  merit,  and  ascribing  every  virtue 
and  capacity  to  the  benevolence  of  God,  leaned  to  the 
crowd ;  while  the  Arminians,  nourishing  pride  by 
asserting  power  and  merit  in  man,  commended  their 
creed  to  the  aristocracy.  Thus  the  Calvinists,  popular 
enthusiasm,  and  the  stadtholder,  were  arrayed  against 
the  provincial  states  and  municipal  authorities.  The 
colonization  of  New  York  by  the  Dutch  depended  on 
the  struggle;  and  the  issue  was  not  long  doubtful. 
The  excesses  of  political  ambition,  disguised  under 
the  forms  of  religious  controversy,  led  to  violent 
counsels.  In  August,  1618,  Olden  Barneveldt  and 
Grotius  were  taken  into  custody. 


277*  AMERICAN    COLONIZATION. 

CHAP.  In  November,  1618,  a  few  weeks  after  the  first  acts 
— . —  of  violence,  the  States  General  gave  a  limited  incor- 
1618.  poration  to  a  company  of  merchants;  yet  the  con- 
ditions of  the  charter  were  not  inviting,  and  no 
organization  took  place.  In  May  of  the  following 
year,  Grotius,  the  first  political  writer  of  his  age,  was 
condemned  to  imprisonment  for  life ;  and  by  the  de- 
fault of  the  stadtholder,  Olden  Barneveldt,  at  the  age 
of  threescore  years  and  twelve,  the  most  venerable  of 
the  patriots  of  Holland,  the  founder  of  the  republic, 
was  conducted  to  the  scaffold. 

These  events  hastened  the  colonization  of  New 
Netherland,  where  as  yet  no  Europeans  had  repaired 
except  commercial  agents  and  their  subordinates.  In 

1620.  1620,  merchants  of  Holland  who  had  thus  far  had  a 
trade  only  in  Hudson's  River, -wished  to  plant  there  a 
new  commonwealth,  lest  the  king  of  Great  Britain 
should  first  people  its  banks  with  the  English  nation. 

head's    l^°  *^is  end  it  was  proposed  to  send  over  John  Robin- 
Sente    son>  w^n  f°ur  hundred  families  of  his  persuasion  ;  but 
Hist!  of  *ne  pilgrims  had  not  lost  their  love  for  the  land  of 
125^'     t^eir  nativity,  and  the  States  were  unwilling  to  guar- 
anty them  protection.     A  voyage  from  Virginia  to 
vindicate  the  trade  in  the  Hudson  for  England,  proved 
a  total  loss.     The  settlement  of  Manhattan  grew  di- 
rectly out  of  the  great  continental  struggles  of  Prot- 
estantism. 

1621.  The  Thirty  Years'  War  of  religion  in  Germany  had 
begun ;  the  twelve  years'  truce  between  the  Nether- 
lands and  the  Spanish  king  had  nearly  expired ;  Aus- 
tria hoped  to  crush  the  reformation  in  the  empire,  and 
Spain  to  recover  dominion  over  its  ancient  provinces. 


NEW   NETHEBLAND.  2Y8 

The  States  General,  whose  existence  .was  menaced  by  CHAP. 

...  XV 

a  combination  of  hostile  powers,  were  summoned  to  -~^ 
display  unparalleled  energy  in  their  foreign  rela-  1621. 
tions;  and  on  the  third  of  June,  1621,  the  Dutch 
West  India  Company,  which  became  the  sovereign  of 
the  central  portion  of  the  United  States,  was  incor- 
porated for  twenty-four  years,  with  a  pledge  of  a  re- 
newal of  its  charter.  It  was  invested,  on  the  part  of 
the  Netherlands,  with  the  exclusive  privilege  to  traffic 
and  plant  colonies  on  the  coast  of  Africa  from  the 
Tropic  of  Cancer  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  on  the 
coast  of  America,  from  the  Straits  of  Magellan  to  the 
remotest  north.  Subscription  to  its  joint  stock  was 
open  to  every  nation ;  the  States  General  made  it  a 
gift  of  half  a  million  of  guilders,  and  were  also  stock- 
holders to  the  amount  of  another  half  million.  The 
franchises  of  the  company  were  immense,  that  it 
might  lay  its  own  plans,  provide  for  its  own  defence, 
and  in  all  things  take  care  of  itself.  The  States  Gen- 
eral, in  case  of  war,  were  to  be  known  only  as  its  allies 
and  patrons.  While  it  was  expected  to  render  ef- 
ficient aid  in  the  impending  war  with  Spain,  its  per- 
manent objects  were  the  peopling  of  fruitful  unsettled 
countries  and  the  increase  of  trade.  It  might  acquire 
provinces,  but  only  at  its  own  risk ;  and  it  was  en- 
dowed with  absolute  power  over  its  possessions,  sub- 
ject to  the  approval  of  the  States  General.  The  com- 
pany was  divided  into  five  branches  or  chambers,  of 
which  that  in  Amsterdam  represented  four-ninths  of 
the  whole.  The  government  was  intrusted  to  a  board 
of  Nineteen,  of  whom  eighteen  represented  the  five 
branches,  and  one  was  named  by  the  States. 


278*  AMERICAN   COLOKIZATION. 

CHAP.         Thus  did  a  nation  of  merchants  give  away  the 
— r-Lx  right  to  appropriate  continents ;    and  the  corporate 

1621.  company,  invested  with  a  boundless  liberty  of  choice, 
culled  the  rich  territories  of  Guinea,  Brazil,  and  New 
Netherland. 

Colonization  on  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware 
was  neither  the  motive  nor  the  main  object  of  the 
establishment  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company ;  the 
territory  was  not  described  either  in  the  charter  or  at 
that  time  in  any  public  act  of  the  States  General, 
which  neither  made  a  formal  specific  grant  nor  of- 
fered, to  guaranty  the  possession  of  a  single  foot  of 
land.  Before  the  chamber  of  Amsterdam,  under  the 
authority  of  the  company,  assumed  the  care  of  New 
Netherland,  while  the  trade  was  still  prosecuted  by 
private  enterprise,  the  English  privy  council  listened 
to  the  complaint  of  Arundel,  Gorges,  Argall  and 
Mason  of  the  Plymouth  Company  against  "  the  Dutch 
intruders,"  and  by  the  king's  direction,  in  February, 

1622.  1622,  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  then  British  ambassador 
at  the  Hague,  claiming  the  country  as  a  part  of  New 
England,  required   the  States  General   to   stay  the 
prosecution   of  their  plantation.     This  remonstrance 
received  no  explicit  answer ;  while  Carleton  reported 
of  the  Dutch  that  all  their  trade  there  was  in  ships  of 
sixty  or  eighty  tons  at  the  most,  to  fetch  furs,  nor 
could  he  learn  that  they  had  either  planted  or  de- 
signed to  plant  a  colony.     But  the  English,  at  that 
time  disheartened  by  the  sufferings  and  losses  encoun- 
tered in  Virginia,  were  not  disposed  to  incur  the  un- 
profitable  expense  of  a  new   settlement;    and  the 
Dutch  ships,  which  went  over  in  1622,  found  none  to 
dispute  the  possession  of  the  country. 


:NTEW  NETHEELAND. 


279 


The  due  organization  of  the  West  India  Company  cfyp> 
in  1623,  was  the  epoch  of  its  zealous  efforts  at  coloni-  — • — ' 
zation.  In  the  spring  of  that  year  "  The  New  Nether-  1 623< 
land,"  a  ship  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  tons  burden, 
carried  out  thirty  families.  They  were  chiefly  Wal- 
loons, Protestant  fugitives  from  Belgian  provinces. 
April  was  gone  before  the  vessel  reached  Manhattan. 
A  party  under  the  command  of  Cornells  Jacobsen 
May,  who  has  left  his  name  on  the  southern  county 
and  cape  of  New  Jersey,  ascended  the  river  Delaware, 
then,  known  as  the  South  River  of  the  Dutch,  and  on 
Timber  Creek,  a  stream  that  enters  the  Delaware  a 
few  miles  below  Camden,  built  Fort  Nassau.  At  the 
same  time  Adriaen  Joris,  on  the  site  of  Albany,  threw 
up  and  completed  the  fort  named  Orange.  There 
eighteen  families  were  settled  ;  their  huts  of  bark  rose 
round  the  fort,  and  were  protected  by  covenants  of 
friendship  with  the  various  tribes  of  Indians. 

The  next  year,  1624,  may  be  taken  as  the  era  of  1624. 
a  continuous  civil  government,  with  Cornelis  Jacobsen 
May  as  the  first  director.  It  had  power  to  punish, 
but  not  with  death ;  judgments  for  capital  crimes  were 
to  be  referred  to  Amsterdam.  The  emigrant  ship 
returned  laden  with  valuable  furs,  and  the  colony  was 
reported  to  be  bravely  prosperous. 

In  1625  May  was  succeeded  by  William  Verhulst.  1625. 
The  colony  was  gladdened  by  the  arrival  of  two  large 
ships  freighted  with  cattle  and  horses,  as  well  as 
swine  and  sheep.  At  Fort  Orange  a  child  of  Nether- 
erland  parentage  was  born.  In  that  year  Frederick 
Henry,  the  new  stadtholder,  was  able  to  quell  the  pas- 
sions of  religious  sects,  and  unite  all  parties  in  a  com- 


279*  AMERICAN   COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,  mon  love  of  country.     Danger  from  England  also  was 
» — r^  diminished,  for  Charles  the  First,  soon  after  his  acces- 

1625.  gion,  entered  into  a  most  intimate  alliance  with  the 
Dutch.     Just  then  Jean  de  Laet,  a  member  of  the 
chamber  of  Amsterdam,  in  an  elaborate  work  on  the 
West  Indies,  opportunely  drew  the  attention  of  his 
countrymen    to   their  rising  colony,   and   published 
Hudson's  own  glowing  description  of  the  land. 

1626.  Under  such  auspices  Peter  Minuit,  of  Wesel,  in  Jan- 
uary, 1626,  sailed  for  New  Netherland  as  its  director 
general.     He  arrived   there  on  the  fourth  of  May. 
Hitherto  the  Dutch  had  no  title  to  ownership  of  the 
land;   Minuit  succeeded  at  once  in  purchasing  the 

Brod-    island  of  Manhattan  from  its  native  proprietors.    The 
Hist,  of  price  paid  was  sixty  guilders,  about  twenty-four  dol- 
164,165.  lars  for  more  than  twenty  thousand  acres.    The  south- 
ern point  was  selected  for  "  a  battery,"  and  lines  were 
drawn  for  a  fort,  which  took  the  name  of  New  Amster- 
dam.    The  town  had  already  thirty  houses,  and  the 
emigrants'  wives  had  borne  them  children.     In  the 
want  of  a  regular  minister,  two  "  consolers  of  the  sick  " 
read  to  the  people  on  Sundays  "  texts  out  of  the 
scriptures,  together  with  the  creeds." 

No  danger  appeared  in  the  distance  except  from 
the  pretensions  of  England.  The  government  of 
Manhattan  wisely  sought  an  interchange  of  "  friendly 
kindness  and  neighborhood  "  with  the  nearest  English 
at  New  Plymouth,  and  by  a  public  letter  in  March, 
162V.  162  Y,  it  formally  claimed  mutual  "good-will  and  ser- 
vice," pleading  "  the  nearness  of  their  native  countries, 
the  friendship  of  their  forefathers,  and  the  new  cove- 
nant between  the  States-General  and  England  against 
the  Spaniards."  Bradford,  in  reply,  gladly  accepted 
the  "  testimony  of  love."  "  Our  children  after  us,"  he 
added,  "shall  never  forget  the  good  and  courteous 


NEW   NETHERLAND.  280 

entreaty  which  we  found  in  your  country  ;  and  shall  CHAP. 
desire  your  prosperity  for  ever."      His  benediction  —  ^ 


was  sincere  ;  though  he  called  to  mind  that  the  Eng- 
lish  patent  for  New  England  extended  to  forty  de- 
grees, within  which,  therefore,  the  Dutch  had  no  right 
"  to  plant  or  trade  ;  "  and  he  especially  begged  them 
not  to  send  their  yachts  into  the  Narragansett. 

"  Our  authority  to  trade  and  plant  we  derive  from 
the  States  of  Holland,  and  will  defend  it,"  rejoined 
Minuit.  But  in  October  of  the  same  year,  he  sent 
De  Rasieres,  who  stood  next  him  in  rank,  on  a  con- 
ciliatory embassy  to  New  Plymouth.  The  envoy, 
who  proceeded  in  state  with  soldiers  and  trumpeters, 
landed  at  Monumet,  and  crossed  the  neck  on  foot. 
At  Scusset,  on  Cape  Cod  Bay,  he  was  met  by  a  boat 
from  the  Old  Colony,  and  "  was  honorably  attended 
with  the  noise  of  trumpets."  He  succeeded  in  con- 
certing a  mutual  trade,  but  Bradford  still  warned  the 
authorities  of  New  Amsterdam  to  "  clear  their  title  " 
to  their  lands  without  delay.  The  advice  seemed  like 
a  wish  to  hunt  the  Dutch  out  of  their  infant  colony, 
and  led  the  college  of  Nineteen  to  ask  of  the  States- 
General  forty  soldiers  for  its  defence. 

Such  were  the  rude  beginnings  of  New  Netherland.  1628. 
The  women  and  children  of  the  colony  were  concen- 
tered on  Manhattan,  which,  in  1628,  counted  a  popu- 
lation of  two  hundred  and  seventy  souls,  including 
Dutch,  Walloons,  and  slaves  from  Angola.  With  April 
of  that  year  arrived  Jonas  Michaelius,  a  clergyman, 
who  at  once  "  established  a  church."  Minuit  was  chosen 
one  of  its  two  elders  ;  at  the  first  administration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  there  were  fifty  communicants. 
This  earliest  age  was  the  age  of  hunters  and  Indian 
traders  ;  of  traffic  in  the  skins  of  otters  and  beavers  ; 
when,  the  native  tribes  were  employed  in  the  pursuit 
of  game,  as  far  as  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  skiffs  of 


280*  AMERICAN   COL01OZATION. 

CHAP,  the  Dutch,  in  quest  of  furs,  penetrated  every  bay  and 
- — <^->  bosom  and  inlet,  from  Narraganset  to  the  Delaware. 

1628.  It  was  the  day  of  straw  roofs  and  wooden  chimneys 
and  windmills.     There  had   been  no  extraordinary 
charge  ;  there  was  no  multitude  of  people ;  but  labor 
was  well-directed  and  profitable  ;  and  the  settlement 
promised   fairly  both  to  the  state  and  to  the  under- 
takers.   The   experiment  in  feudal  institutions  fol- 
lowed. 

Reprisals  on  Spanish  commerce  were  the  alluring 
pursuit  of  the  West  India  Company.  On  a  single  oc- 
casion, in  1628,  the  captures  secured  by  its  privateers 
were  almost  eighty-fold  more  valuable  than  all  the  ex- 
ports from  their  colony  for  the  four  preceding  years. 

1629.  While  the  company  of  merchant  warriors,  conducting 
their  maritime  enterprises  like  princes,  were  making 
prizes  of  the  rich  fleets  of  Portugal  and  Spain,  and, 
by  their  victories,  pouring  the  wealth  of  America  into 
their  treasury,  the  States  General  interposed  to  sub- 
ject the  government  of  foreign  conquests  to  a  council 
of  Nine  ;  and  in  1629  the  college  of  Nineteen  adopted 
a  charter  of  privileges  for  patroons  who  desired  to 
found  colonies  in  New  Netherland. 

These  colonies  were  to  resemble  the  lordships  in 
the  Netherlands.  Every  one  who  would  emigrate  on 
his  own  account,  was  promised  as  much  land  as  he 
could  cultivate  ;  but  husbandmen  were  not  expected 
to  emigrate  without  aid.  The  liberties  of  Holland 
were  the  fruit  of  municipalities ;  the  country  people 
were  subordinate  to  their  landlord,  against  whose 
oppression  the  town  was  their  refuge.  The  boors  en- 
joyed as  yet  no  political  franchises,  and  had  not  had 


NEW   NETHEKLAND.  281 

the  experience  required  for  planting  states  on  a  prin-  CHAP. 
ciple  of  equality.  To  the  enterprise  of  proprietaries  ^-— 
New  Netherland  was  to  owe  its  tenants.  He  that  16  29. 
within  four  years  would  plant  a  colony  of  fifty  souls, 
became  lord  of  the  manor,  or  patroon,  possessing  in 
absolute  property  the  lands  he  might  colonize.  Those 
lands  might  -extend  sixteen  miles  in  length ;  or,  if 
they  lay  upon  both  sides  of  a  river,  eight  miles  on 
each  bank,  stretching  indefinitely  far  into  the  interior ; 
yet  it  was  stipulated  that  the  soil  must  be  purchased 
of  the  Indians.  Were  cities  to  grow  up,  the  institu- 
tion of  their  government  would  rest  with  the  patroon, 
who  was  to  exercise  judicial  power,  yet  subject  to  ap- 
peals. The  schoolmaster  and  the  minister  were 
praised  as  desirable ;  but  there  was  no  establishment 
for  their  maintenance.  The  colonists  were  forbidden 
to  manufacture  any  woollen,  or  linen,  or  cotton  fabrics ; 
not  a  web  might  be  woven,  not  a  shuttle  thrown,  on 
penalty  of  exile.  To  impair  the  monopoly  of  the  Dutch 
weavers  was  punishable  as  a  perjury.  The  company, 
moreover,  pledged  itself  to  furnish  the  manors  with 
negroes ;  yet  not,  it  was  warily  provided,  unless  the 
traffic  should  prove  lucrative.  The  Isle  of  Manhat- 
tan, as  the  chosen  seat  of  commerce,  was  reserved  to 
the  company. 

This  charter  of  liberties  was  fatal  to  the  interests 
of  the  corporation  ;  its  directors  and  agents  immedi- 
ately appropriated  to  themselves  the  most  valuable 
portions  of  its  territory.  In  June,  1629,  three  years, 
therefore,  before  the  concession  of  the  charter  for 
Maryland,  Samuel  Godyn  and  Samuel  Blommaert, 
both  directors  of  the  Amsterdam  chamber,  bargained 


281*  AMERICAN   COLONIZATION. 

CxvP'  W^  the  natives  for  the  soil  from  Cape  Henlopen  to 
*— »-~  the  mouth  of  Delaware  River ;  in  July,  1630,  this  pur- 
1630.  chase  of  an  estate,  more  than  thirty  miles  long,  was 
ratified  at  Fort  Amsterdam  by  Minuit  and  his  council. 
It  is  the  oldest  deed  for  land  in  Delaware,  and  com- 
prises the  water-line  of  the  two  southern  counties  of 
that  state.  Still  larger  domains  were  in  the  same 
year  appropriated  by  the  agents  of  another  director 
of  the  Amsterdam  chamber,  Kiliaen  Van  Rensselaer, 
to  whom  successive  purchases  from  Mohawk  and  Mo- 
hican chiefs  gave  titles  to  land  north  and  south  of 
Fort  Orange.  His  deeds  also  were  promptly  confirm- 
ed ;  so  that  his  possessions,  including  a  later  supple- 
mentary acquisition,  extended  above  and  below  Fort 
Orange,  for  twenty-four  miles  on  each  side  of  the 
river  and  forty-eight  miles  into  the  interior.  In  the 
same  year  he  sent  out  emigrants  to  the  colony  of 
Rensselaerwyck.  Of  Hoboken,  and  what  is  now  Jer- 
sey City  and  Staten  Island,  Michael  Pauw,  another 
director,  hastened  to  become  the  patroon;  and  he 
named  his  "  colonie  "  Pavonia. 

The  company  had  designed,  by  its  charter  of  lib- 
erties, to  favor  the  peopling  of  the  province,  and  yet 
to  retain  its  trade ;  under  pretence  of  advancing  agri- 
culture, individuals  had  acquired  a  title  to  all  the  im- 
portant points,  where  the  natives  resorted  for  traffic. 
As  a  necessary  consequence,  the  feudal  possessors  were 
often  in  collision  with  the  central  government ;  while 
to  the  humble  emigrant,  the  monopoly  of  commerce 
was  aggravated  by  the  monopoly  of  land. 

A  company  was  soon  formed  to  colonize  the  tract 
acquired  by  Godyn  and  Blommaert.  The  first  set- 


NEW   NETHEKLAOTX  282 

tlement  in  Delaware,  older  than  any  in  Pennsylvania,  CHAP. 
was  undertaken  by  a  company,    of  which  Godyn,  ^-r— 
Van  Rensselaer,  Blommaert,  the  historian   De  Laet,  1630. 
and  a  new  partner,  David  Pietersen  de  Vries,  were 
members.     By  joint  enterprise,  in  December,  1630,  Murphj- 
a  ship  of  eighteen  guns,  commanded  by  Pieter  Heyes  of°&?es 
and  laden  with  emigrants,  store  of  seeds,  cattle,  and  £™£; 
agricultural  implements,  embarked  from  the  Texel,  205*20?; 
partly  to  cover  the  southern  shore  of  Delaware  Bay 
with  fields  of  wheat  and  tobacco,  and  partly  for  the 
whale-fishery  on  the  coast.     A  yacht  which  went  in 
company,  was  taken  by  a  Dunkirk  privateer ;  early  in 
the  spring  of  1631  the  larger  vessel  reached  its  des-  1631. 
tination,  and  just  within  Cape  Henlopen,  on  Lewes 
Creek,  planted  a  colony  of  more  than  thirty  souls. 
The  superintendence  of  the  settlement  was  entrusted 
to  Gillis  Hosset.     A  little  fort  was  built  and  well  be- 
set with  palisades ;  the  arms  of  Holland  were  affixed 
to  a  pillar ;  the  country  received  the  name  of  Swaan- 
endael ;  the  water,  that  of  Godyn's  Bay.    The  voyage 
of  Heyes  was  the  cradling  of  a  state.     That  Delaware 
exists  as  a  separate  commonwealth,  is  due  to  this  col- 
ony.    According  to  English  rule,  occupancy  was  ne- 
cessary to  complete  a  title  to  the  wilderness ;  and  the 
Dutch  now  occupied  Delaware. 

On  the  fifth  of  May,  Heyes  and  Hosset,  in  behalf 
of  Godyn  and  Blommaert,  made  a  further  purchase 
from  Indian  chiefs  of  the  opposite  coast  of  Cape  May, 
for  twelve  miles  on  the  bay,  on  the  sea,  and  in  the 
interior ;  and  in  June,  this  sale  of  a  tract,  twelve  miles 
square,  was  formally  attested  at  Manhattan. 

Animated  by  the  courage  of  Godyn,  the  patroons 


282*  AMERICAN    COLONIZATION. 

CHAP,   of  Swaanendael  fitted  out  a  second  expedition,  under 
> — r-~-  the  command  of  De  Vries.     But  before  he  set  sail, 

1631.  news  was  received  of  the  destruction  of  the  little 
fort  and  the    murder  of   all  its  people.      Hosset, 
the  commandant,  had  caused  the  death  of  an  Indian 
chief;  and  the  revenge  of  the  savages  was  not  ap- 
peased till  not  one  of  the  emigrants  remained  alive. 
De  Vries,  on  his  arrival,  found  only  the  ruins  of  the 
house  and  its  palisades,  half  consumed  by  fire,  and 
here  and  there  the  bones  of  the  colonists. 

Before  the  Dutch  could  recover  the  soil  of  Dela- 
ware from  the  natives,  the  patent  granted  to  Balti- 
more gave  them  an  English  competitor.  Distracted 
by  anarchy,  the  administration  of  New  Netherland 
could  not  withstand  encroachments.  The  too  power- 
ful patroons  disputed  the  fur-trade  with  the  agents 

1632.  of  the  West  India  Company.     In  1632,  to  still  the 
quarrels,  the  discontented  Minuit  was  displaced ;  but 
the  inherent  evils  in  the  system  were  not  lessened  by 
appointing  as  his  successor  the  selfish  and  incompe- 
tent Wouter  van  Twiller.      The  English  government 
claimed  that  New  Netherland  was  planted  only  on 
sufferance.     The  ship  in  which  Minuit  embarked  for 
Holland  entered  Plymouth  in  a  stress  of  weather, 
and  was  detained  for  a  time  on  the  allegation  that  it 
had  traded  without  license  in  a  part  of  the  king's 
dominions.     Van  Twiller,  who  arrived  at  Manhattan 

1633.  in  April,  1633,  was  defied  by  an  English  ship,  which 
sailed  up  the  river  before  his  eyes.  The  rush  of  Puritan 
emigrants  to  New  England  had  quickened  the  move- 
ments of  the  Dutch  on  the  Connecticut,  which  they 


FIRST   COLONY  ON  THE   DELAWARE.  283 

undoubtedly  were  the  first  to  discover  and  to  occupy   CHAP 
The  soil  round  Hartford  was  purchased  of  the  natives,  -~^ 


and  a  fort  was  erected1  on   land  within  the  present 

Jan. 

limits  of  that  city,  some  months  before  the  pilgrims  of  8. 
Plymouth  colony  raised  their  block-house  at  Windsor, 
and  more  than  two  years  before  the  people  of  Hooker 
and  Haynes  began  the  commonwealth  of  Connecticut.  1935 
To  whom  did  the  country  belong  ?  Like  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson,  it  had  been  first  explored,  and  even 
occupied,  by  the  Dutch  ;  but  should  a  log-hut  and  a 
few  straggling  soldiers  seal  a  territory  against  other 
emigrants  ?  The  English  planters  were  on  a  soil 
over  which  England  had  ever  claimed  the  sove- 
reignty, and  of  which  the  English  monarch  had  made 
a  grant  ;  they  were  there  with  their  wives  and  children, 
and  they  were  there  forever.  It  were  a  sin,  said  they, 
to  leave  so  fertile  a  land  unimproved.2  Their  religious 
enthusiasm,  zeal  for  popular  liberty,  and  numbers,  did 
not  leave  the  issue  uncertain.  Altercations  continued 
for  years  ;  but  they  had  no  dignity,  for  they  were  fol- 
lowed by  no  result.  The  Dutch  fort  long  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  ;  but  it 
was  surrounded  by  English  towns.  At  last,  the  swarms 
of  the  English  in  Connecticut  grew  so  numerous,  as 
not  only  to  overwhelm  the  feeble  settlement  at  Hart- 
ford, but,  under  a  grant  from  Lord  Stirling,  to  invade 
the  less  doubtful  territories  of  New  Netherland.3  In 
the  second  year  of  the  government  of  William  Kieft,  1640 
the  arms  of  the  Dutch  on  the  east  end  of  Long  Island 
were  thrown  down  in  derision,  and  a  fool's  head  set  in 
their  place.4 

1  Albany  Records,  ii.  157.  Trumbull,  i.  21.  Bradford,  in  Prince. 

2  De  Vries's  Voyages.  Compare   the   argument  of  G    C 

3  Winthrop,  i.  112,  113.     Stuy-  Verplanck,  in  N.  A.  Review,  viii. 
resant,  in  Hazard,  ii.  262.  Bradford,  78,  &c. 

n  Hutchinson's   Mass.    416,   417.        «  Records,  ii.  82,  &c. 


284  GUSTAVUS  ADOLPHUS  AND  AMERICA. 

CHAP.       While    the    New    England    men    were    thus    en 

XV. 

^v~  croaching  on  the  Dutch  on  the  east,  a  new  competi 
tor  for  possessions  in  America  appeared  in  Delaware 
Bay. 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  greatest  benefactor  of  hu- 
manity in  the  line  of  Swedish  kings,  had  discerned  the 
advantages  which  might  be  expected  from  colonies  and 
widely-extended  commerce.  His  zeal  was  encouraged 

1624.  by  William  Wsselinx,  a  Netherlander,  whose  mind  for 
many  years  had  been  steadily  devoted  to  the  subject ; 
at  his  instance,  a  commercial  company,  with  exclusive 
privileges  to  traffic  beyond  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  and 

June  the  right  of  planting  colonies,  was  sanctioned  by  the 
king,  and  incorporated  by  the  states  of  Sweden.     The 

1627. 

Mayi  stock  was  open  to  all  Europe  for  subscription ;  the  king 
himself  pledged  400,000  dollars  of  the  royal  treasure 
on  equal  risks ;  the  chief  place  of  business  was  estab- 
lished at  Gottenburg ;  a  branch  was  promised  to  any 
city  which  would  embark  300,000  dollars  in  the  under- 
taking. The  government  of  the  future  colonies  was 
reserved  to  a  royal  council ;  for  "  politics,"  says  the 
charter — and  the  expression  marks  the  nation  and  the 
times — "  politics  lie  beyond  the  profession  of  mer- 
chants."1 Men  of  every  rank  were  solicited  to  engage 
in  the  enterprise  ;  it  was  resolved  to  invite  "  colonists 
from  all  the  nations  of  Europe."2  Other  nations 
employed  slaves  in  their  colonies;  and  "slaves,"  said 
they,  "  cost  a  great  deal,  labor  with  reluctance,  and 
soon  perish  from  hard  usage ;  the  Swedish  nation  is 
laborious  and  intelligent,  and  surely  we  shall  gain  more 
by  a  free  people  with  wives  and  children."3  To  the 
Scandinavian  imagination,  hope  painted  the  New  World 

1  Argonautica   Gustaviana    con-        a  Ibid.  3. 
tain  the  Documents.  3  Ibid.  3,  and  compare  22. 


OXENSTIERN  FAVORS  NEW  SWEDEN.  285 


as  a  paradise  ;  1  the  proposed  colony  as  a  benefit  to  the 
persecuted,  a  security  "  to  the  honor  of  the  wives  and  - 
daughters  "  of  those  whom  wars  and  bigotry  had  made 
fugitives;2  a  blessing  to  the  "common  man;"  to  the 
"  whole  Protestant  world."3      It  may  prove  the  ad- 
vantage, said  Gustavus,  of  "all  oppressed  Christen-  1629 
dom  "4 

But  the  reviving  influence  of  the  pope  menaced 
Protestant  Christendom  with  ruin.  The  insurrection 
against  intellectual  servitude,  of  which  the  reformation 
was  the  great  expression,  appeared  in  danger  of  being 
suppressed,  when  Gustavus  Adolphus  resolved  to  invade 
Germany  and  vindicate  the  rights  of  conscience  with  May 
his  sword.  Even  the  cherished  purpose  of  colonization 
yielded  in  the  emergency  ;  and  the  funds  of  the  com- 
pany were  arbitrarily  applied  as  resources  in  the  war. 
It  was  a  war  of  revolution  ;  a  struggle  to  secure  German 
liberty  by  establishing  religious  toleration  ;  yet  even 
the  great  events  on  which  the  destinies  of  Germany 
were  suspended,  could  not  wholly  drive  from  th«  mind 
of  Gustavus  his  designs  in  America.  They  did  but 
enlarge  his  views;  and  at  Nuremberg,  but  a  few  days  1632 
before  the  battle  of  Liitzen,  where  humanity  won  one  is. 
of  her  most  glorious  victories,  and  lost  one  of  her  ablest 
defenders,  the  enterprise,  which  still  appeared  to  him 
as  "the  jewel  of  his  kingdom,"5  was  recommended  to 
the  people  of  Germany. 

In  confirming  the  invitation  to  Germany,  Oxenstiern  1633 

A          "1 

declares  himself  to  be  but  the  executor  of  the  wish  of     j^ 
Gustavus.     The  same  wise  statesman,  one  of  the  great 

1  Argonautica  Gustaviana,  11.  5  Oxenstiern,     in     Argonautica 

2  Ibid.  16.  Gustaviana.    Compare  Erinnerung, 

3  Ibid.  in  Mercurius  Germanise,  1.     These 

4  "  Totius    oppresses  Christian!-  very  rare  tracts  are  in  our  Cam- 
tatis."    Mercurius  Germanise,  38.  bridge  library. 


286  NEW  SWEDEN  PLANTED  IN  1638. 

CHAP,  men  of  all  time,  the  serene  chancellor,  \\"io  in  the 

— •^--  busiest  scenes  never  took  a  care  with  him  to  his  couch, 

1633.  renewed  the  patent  of  the  company,  and  extended  its 

26.    benefits  to  Germany ;  the  charter  was  soon  confirmed 

by  the  deputies  of  the  four  upper  circles  at  Frankfort l 

"  The  consequences"  of  this  design,  said  Oxenstiern, 

"  will  be  favorable  to  all  Christendom,  to  Europe,  to  the 

whole  world."     And  were  they  not   so  ?     The  first 

permanent  colonization  of  the  banks  of  the  Delaware 

is  due  to  Oxenstiern. 

Yet  more  than  four  years  passed  away  before  the 
1638  design  was  carried  into  effect.  We  have  seen  Minu- 
it,  the  early  governor  of  New  Amsterdam,  forfeit  his 
place  amidst  the  strifes  of  faction.  He  now  offered  the 
benefit  of  his  experience  to  the  Swedes ;  and  leaving 
Sweden,  probably  near  the  close  of  the  year  1637,  he 
sailed  for  the  Bay  of  Delaware.  Two  vessels,  the  Key 
of  Calmar,  and  the  Griffin,  formed  his  whole  fleet ;  the 
care  of  the  Swedish  government  provided  the  emigrants 
with  a  religious  teacher,  with  provisions,  and  merchan- 
dise for  traffic  with  the  natives.  Early  in  the  year 
1638,2  the  little  company  of  Swedes  and  Finns  arrived 
in  the  Delaware  Bay ;  the  lands  from  the  southern  cape, 
which  the  emigrants  from  hyperborean  regions  named 
Paradise  Point,  to  the  falls  in  the  river  near  Trenton, 

1  A  copy  of  the  act  is  before  me,  ties  the   question;    more  than   14 
dated  December  12,  1634,  printed  years  after  the  building  of  Fort  Nas- 
at  Hamburg,  1635.  sau,  that   is,  early  in  1638.     This 

2  There  has  been  much  confusion  too  is  the  statement  of  the  careful 
in  the  statements  of  the  time  when  Acrelius,  an  author  worthy  of  confi- 
tho  first    Swedish  settlement  was  dence.     Campanius,  on  the  contra- 
made  ;  Campanius  says  about  1631,  ry,  was  ignorant  and  careless.    His 
and  Duponceau,  p.  68,  repeats  the  book,  full  of  errors,  contains  valua- 
error.    So  Smith,  in  his  New  Jersey,  ble  materials,  which  he  knew  not 
22,   Proud,   i.    1 15,    and    Holmes,  how  to  use.     The  voyage  to  Amer 
Riihs,  and  many  others,  make  a  sim-  ica  used  then  to  be  made  by  the 
ilar  mistake.     In  the  Albany  Rec-  southern  passage.     Compare  Cam- 
ords,  xvii.  322,  the  journal  of  the  panius,   70 — 72.     The   ships   must 
Dutch  commissary,  A.  Hudde.  set-  have  left  Sweden  late  in  1637. 


EMIGRATION  FROM   SCANDINAVIA.  287 

were  purchased  of  the  natives ;  and  near  the  mouth  of  CHAP 
Christiana  Creek,  within  the  limits  of  the  present  state  -— <^~ 
of  Delaware,  Christiana  Fort,  so  called  from  the  little 
girl  who  was   then  queen  of   Sweden,  was  erected. 
Delaware  was  colonized. 

The  colony  was  not  unmolested.  Should  the  Dutch 
suffer  their  province  to  be  dismembered  ?  The  records 
at  Albany1  still  preserve  the  protest,  in  which  Kieft, 
then  director  general  of  New  Netherland,  claimed  for  the 
Dutch  the  country  on  the  Delaware  :  their  possession 
had  long  been  guarded  by  forts,  and  had  been  sealed  , 
by  the  blood  of  their  countrymen.  But  at  that  time, 
the  fame  of  Swedish  arms  protected  the  Swedish 
flag  in  the  New  World  ;  and  while  Banner  and  Tors- 
tenson  were  humbling  Austria  and  Denmark,  the  Dutch 
did  not  venture  beyond  a  protest. 

Meantime  tidings  of  the  loveliness  of  the  country 
had  been  borne  to  Scandinavia,  and  the  peasantry  of 
Sweden  and  of  Finland  longed  to  exchange  their  lands  in 
Europe  for  a  settlement  on  the  Delaware.  Emigration 
increased ;  at  the  last  considerable  expedition,  there  were 
more  than  a  hundred  families2  eager  to  embark  for 
the  land  of  promise,  and  unable  to  obtain  a  passage  in 
the  crowded  vessels.  The  plantations  of  the  Swedes 
were  gradually  extended  ;  and  to  preserve  the  ascen- 
dency over  the  Dutch,  who  renewed  their  fort  at 
Nassau,  Printz,  the  governor,  established  his  residence  1643 
in  Tinicum,  a  few  miles  below  Philadelphia.  A  fort, 
constructed  of  vast  hemlock  logs,  defended  the  island  ;3 
and  houses  began  to  cluster  in  its  neighborhood. 
Pennsylvania  was,  at  last,  occupied  by  Europeans; 
Jiat  commonwealth,  like  Delaware,  traces  its  lineage 

1  Albany  Records,  ii.  7,  8.  3  Hudde,    in   Albany    Records, 

s  Lindstrom,  in  Campanius,  74.       xvii.  323.    Campanius,  79. 


288  WAR  BETWEEN  THE  DUTCH  AND  THE  ALGONQUINS. 

CHAP,  to  the  Swedes,  who  had  planted  a  suburb  of  Philadel- 
— -^»"  phia  before  William  Penn  became  its  proprietary.     The 
banks  of  the  Delaware  from  the  ocean  to  the  falls  were 
known  as  New  Sweden.     The  few  English  families 
1640.  within  its  limits,  emigrants  from  New  England,1  allured 
by  the  beauty  of  the  climate  and  the  opportunity  of 
Indian  traffic,  were  either  driven  from  the  soil,  or  sub 
mitted  to  Swedish  jurisdiction.2 

While  the  limits  of  New  Netherland  were  narrowed 
by  competitors  on  the  east  and  on  the  south,  and  Long 
Island  was  soon  to  be  claimed  by  the  agent  of  Lord 
Stirling,3  the  colony  was  almost  annihilated  by  the 
vengeance  of  the  neighboring  Algonquin  tribes.  Angry 
and  even  bloody  quarrels  had  sometimes  arisen  between 
dishonest  traders  and  savages  maddened  by  intoxica- 

1640.  tion.     The  blameless  settlement  on  Staten  Island  had, 
in  consequence,  been  ruined  by  the  blind  vengeance  of 
the  tribes  of  New  Jersey.     The  strife  continued.     A 
boy  who  had  been  present  when,  years  before,  his 
uncle   had    been  robbed   and   murdered,  had    vowed 
revenge,  and,  now  that  he  was  grown  to  man's  estate, 

1641.  remembered  and  executed  the  vow  of  his  childhood. 
A  roving  but  fruitless  expedition  into  the  country  south 
of  the  Hudson,  was  the  consequence.     The  Raritans 
were  outlawed,  and  a  bounty  of  ten  fathoms  of  wam- 
pum was  offered  for  every  member  of  the  tribe.     The 
season  of  danger  brought  with  it  the  necessity  of  con- 
sulting the  people ;  and  the  commons  elected  a  body  of 
twelve  to  assist  the  governor.     De  Vries,  the  head  of 
the  committee  of  the  people,  urged  the  advantage  of 

1  Hazard,  ii.  213.  Swedes  on  the  Delaware,  22  ;  Haz- 

2  Compare,  on  the  whole  subject,  ard,  ii.  127,  171, 181,  192,  213,  319 
Trumbull's     Connecticut,    L  178  ;  &c. ;  Winthrop,  ii.  62,  76,  178. 
Hazard's  Register  of  Pennsylvania,  3  Albany  Records,  iv.  4. 

i   17,  &c. ;  Clay's  Annals  of  the 


WAR  BETWEEN  THE  DUTCH  AND  THE  ALGONQUINS.     289 

friendship  with  the  natives.  But  the  traders  did  not  CHAP. 
learn  humanity,  nor  the  savage  forget  revenge  ;  and  the  — ~ 
son  of  a  chief,  stung  by  the  conviction  of  having  been 
defrauded  and  robbed,  aimed  an  unerring  arrow  at  the 
first  Hollander  exposed  to  his  fury.  A  deputation  of  the  1 642 
river  chieftains  hastened  to  express  their  sorrow,  and 
deplore  the  alternate,  never-ending  libations  of  blood. 
The  murderer  they  could  not  deliver  up ;  but  after  the 
custom  of  the  Saxons  in  the  days  of  Alfred,  or  the  Irish 
under  Elizabeth,  in  exact  correspondence  with  the 
usages  of  earliest  Greece,1  they  offered  to  purchase  se- 
curity for  the  murderer  by  a  fine  for  blood.  Two  hun- 
dred fathom  of  the  best  wampum  might  console  the  grief 
of  the  widow.  "  You  yourselves,"  they  added,  "  are  the 
cause  of  this  evil ;  you  ought  not  craze  the  young  In- 
dians with  brandy.  Your  own  people,  when  drunk,  fight 
with  knives,  and  do  foolish  things ;  and  you  cannot 
prevent  mischief,  till  you  cease  to  sell  strong  drink  to 
the  Indian." 

Kieft  was  inexorable,  and  demanded  the  murderer. 
Just  then,  a  small  party  of  Mohawks  from  the  neigh-  1643. 
borhood  of  Fort  Orange,  armed  with  muskets,  descended 
from  their  fastnesses,  and  claimed  the  natives  round 
Manhattan  as  tributaries.  At  the  approach  of  the 
formidable  warriors  of  a  braver  Huron  race,  the  more 
numerous  but  cowering  Algonquins  crowded  together 
in  despair,  begging  assistance  of  the  Dutch.  Kieft 
seized  the  moment  for  an  exterminating  massacre.  In 
vain  was  it  foretold  that  the  ruin  would  light  upon  the 
Dutch  themselves.  In  the  stillness  of  a  dark  winter's  Feb. 
night,  the  soldiers  at  the  fort,  joined  by  freebooters  25'  ** 


i  Iliad  ix.  632:— 
— xal  fiiv 
Iloivty  i) 

VOL.  ii.  37 


— xal  (tiv  its  ie  xaawvtpoio 
Iloivty   i)  o5  naidbg  ed^aw 


290  DEATH  OF  ANNE  HUTCHINSON. 

CHAP,  from  Dutch  privateers,  and  led  by  a  guide  who  knew 
— >~  every  by-path  and  nook  where  the  savages  nestled, 
1643  crossed  the  Hudson,  for  the  purpose  of  destruction. 
The  naked  and  unsuspecting  tribes  could  offer  little 
resistance  ;  the  noise  of  musketry  mingled  with  the 
yell  of  the  victims.  Nearly  a  hundred  perished  in  the 
carnage.  Day-break  did  not  end  its  horrors ;  men 
might  be  seen,  mangled  and  helpless,  suffering  from 
cold  and  hunger ;  children  were  tossed  into  the  stream, 
and  as  their  parents  plunged  to  their  rescue,  the  soldiers 
prevented  their  landing,  that  both  child  and  parent 
might  drown. 

The  massacre  was  held  in  detestation  by  the  colo- 
nists, who  afterwards  decided  to  imitate  the  precedent 
of  Virginia,  by  deposing  their  governor  and  sending 
him  back  to  Holland.  For  the  moment,  he  was  proud  of 
his  deed  of  treachery,  and  greeted  the  returning  troops 
with  exultation.  But  his  joy  was  short.  No  sooner 
was  it  known  that  the  midnight  attack  had  been  made 
not  by  the  Mohawks,  but  by  the  Dutch,  than  every 
Algonquin  tribe  round  Manhattan  burned  with  the 
frenzy  of  revenge.  The  swamps  were  their  hiding-, 
places,  from  which  sudden  onsets  were  made  in  every 
direction  ;  villages  were  laid  waste ;  the  farmer  mur- 
dered in  the  field ;  his  children  swept  into  captivity. 
From  the  shores  of  New  Jersey  to  the  borders  of  Con- 
necticut, not  a  bowery  was  safe.  It  was  on  this 
occasion,  that  Anne  Hutchinson,1  one  of  the  most 
extraordinary  women  of  her  age,  worthy  to  be  named 
with  Roger  Williams  and  George  Fox,  perished  with 
her  family.  The  Dutch  colony  was  threatened  with 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  136.    Gorton,  59.    the  Indians  did  burn  her  to  death 
Hubbard,     345.       Welde's     Rise,    with  fire." 
Reign,  and    Ruin,    "  Some   write 


WAE   BETWEEN   THE   DUTCH   AND   THE   ALGONQUINS.          291 

ruin.    "  Mine  eyes,"  says  a  witness,  "  saw  the  flames  at  CHAP. 
their  towns,  and  the  frights  and  hurries  of  men,  women  -— Y-^ 
and  children,  the  present  removal  of  all  that  could  for  16  48. 
Holland."   The  director  was  compelled  to  desire  peace. 
On  the  fifth  of  March,  1643,  a  convention  of  six- 
teen sachems  assembled  in  the  woods  of  Rockaway,  March 
and  at  daybreak  De  Vries  and  another,  the  two  en- 
voys from  Manhattan,  were  conducted  to  the  centre  of 
the  little  senate.    Their  best  orator  addressed  them, 
holding  in  one  hand  a  bundle  of  small  sticks.  "  When 
you  first  arrived  on  our  shores,  you  were  destitute  of 

*       J  l_  J  *  J     Murphy's 

tood ;  we  gave  you  our  beans  and  our  corn ;  we  ted  Jf°g«es 
you  with  oysters  and  fish ;  and  now,  for  our  recom-  email-8' 
pense,  you  murder  our  people."   Such  were  his  opening  f.  2?e. 
words  ;  having  put  down  one  little  stick,  he  proceed-  ^fsof 
ed :  "  The  traders  whom  your  first  ships  left  on  our  N*Y-  859- 
shore  to  traffic  till  their  return,  were  cherished  by  us 
as  the  apple  of  our  eye :  we  gave  them  our  daughters 
for  their  wives ;  among  those  whom  you  have  mur- 
dered were  children  of  your  own  blood."     He  laid 
down  another  stick ;  and  many  more  remained  in  his 
hand,  each  a  memento  of  an  unsatisfied  wrong.     "  I 
know  all,"  said  De  Vries,  interrupting  him,  and  in- 
viting the  chiefs  to  repair  to  the  fort.     The  speaking 
ceased ;  the  chieftains  gave  costly  presents,  ten  fathoms 
of  sea  wan,  to  each  of  the  whites ;  and  then  the  party 
went  by  water  to  New  Amsterdam.  There  peace  was 
made ;  but  the  presents  of  Kieft  were  those  of  a  nig- 
gard ;  and  left  still  in  the  Indians  the  rankling  mem- 
ory of  the  cruel  slaughter  of  their  infants.     A  month 
later,  a  similar  covenant  was  made  with  the  tribes  on 
the  river.   But  confidence  was  not  restored.  The  young 
warriors  among  the  Red  Men  would  not  be  pacified  ; 
one  had  lost  a  father  or  a  mother ;  a  second  owed 
revenge  to  the  memory  of  a  friend.     No  sufficient 


292  WAR  RENEWED. 

CHAP,  ransom  had  stifled  revenge  and  calmed  the  pride  of 
—  <~~  honor.     "  The  presents   we  have  received,"   said  an 


older  chief,  in  despondency,  "  bear  no  proportion  to  our 
20.     loss;  the  price  of  blood  has  not  been  paid;"1  and  war 

Sept.  , 

15.     was  renewed. 

The  commander  of  the  Dutch  troops  was  John 
Underbill,  a  fugitive  from  New  England,  a  veteran  in 
Indian  warfare,  and  one  of  the  bravest  men  of  his  day. 
Having  the  licentiousness  not  less  than  the  courage  of 
the  soldiers  of  that  age,  he  had  been  compelled,  at 

1640.  Boston,  in  a  great  assembly,  on  lecture-day,   during 
the  session  of  the  General  Court,  dressed  in  the  ruthful 
habit  of  a  penitent,  to  stand  upon  a  platform,  and  with 
sighs  and  tears,  and  brokenness  of  heart,  and  the  aspect 
of  sorrow,  to  beseech  the  compassion  of  the  congrega- 

1641.  tion.2     In    the   following   year,  he  removed  to   New 
Netherland,  and  now,  with  a  little  army  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  men,  became  the  protector  of  the  Dutch 

.   settlements.     The  war  continued  for  two  years.     At 

1  643.  » 

to  length,  the  Dutch  were  weary  of  danger  ;  the  Indians 
''  tired  of  being  hunted  like  beasts.  The  Mohawks 
claimed  a  sovereignty  over  the  Algonquins  ;  their  am- 
1645.  bassador  appeared  at  Manhattan  to  negotiate  a  peace  ; 
and  in  front  of  Fort  Amsterdam,  according  to  Indian 
usage,  under  the  open  sky,  on  the  spot  now  so  beauti- 
ful, where  the  commerce  of  the  world  may  be  watched 
from  shady  walks,  in  the  presence  of  the  sun  and  of  the 
ocean,  the  sachems  of  New  Jersey,  of  the  River  In- 
dians, of  the  Mohicans,  and  from  Long  Island,  ac- 
knowledging the  chiefs  of  the  Five  Nations  as  witnesses 
and  arbitrators,  and  having  around  them  the  director 
and  council  of  New  Netherland,  with  the  whole  com- 

1  It  is  curious  to  compare  H.  ix.        2  Hubbard's    History   of    New 
634,  n6W  faorlaae.  England,  359,  360. 


THE  DAWN  OF  BETTER  DAYS  293 

monalty  of  the  Dutch,  set  their   marks  to  a  solemn  CHAP 
treaty  of  peace.1     The  joy  of  the  colony  broke  forth  ~^v-~ 


into  a  general  thanksgiving  ;  but  infamy  attached  to 
the  name  of  Kieft,  the  author  of  the  carnage  ;  the  6. 
emigrants  desired  to  reject  him  as  their  governor  ;  the 
West  India  Company  disclaimed  his  barbarous  policy. 
About  two  years  after  the  peace,  he  embarked  for  1647 
Europe  in  a  large  and  richly-laden  vessel  ;  but  the  man 
of  blood  was  not  destined  to  revisit  the  shores  of  Hol- 
land. The  ship  in  which  he  sailed,  unable  to  breast 
the  fury  of  elements  as  merciless  as  his  own  passions, 
was  dashed  in  pieces  on  the  coast  of  Wales,  and  the 
guilty  Kieft  was  overwhelmed  by  the  waves.2  1648 

A  better  day  dawned  on  New  Netherland,  when 
the  brave  and  honest  Stuyvesant,  recently  the  vice- 
director  of  Cura9ao,  wounded  in  the  West  Indies,  in 
the  attack  on  St.  Martin,  a  soldier  of  experience,  a 
scholar  of  some  learning,  was  promoted  for  his  services,  1646 
and  entered  on  the  government  of  the  province.  Sad  ex- 
perience  dictated  a  milder  system  towards  the  natives  ; 
and  it  was  resolved  to  govern  them  with  lenity.  The 
interests  of  New  Netherland  required  free  trade;  at  first, 
the  department  of  Amsterdam  would  not  listen  to  the 
prayer;  it  had  alone  borne  the  expense  of  the  colony,  and  1648 
would  tolerate  no  interlopers.  But  nature  is  stronger 
than  privileged  companies  ;  the  monopoly  could  not  be 

1  The   contemporary  authorities  161,  and  repeated,  but  not  confirmed, 

are  abundant.    I.  The  Albany  Rec-  by  Wood,  p.  74,  cannot  be  quite 

ords,  vol.  ii.  contain  Kieft's  state-  accurate;     at    least    as    to    time. 

ment.     Compare    other  places,   as  Memory  is  an  easy  dupe,  and  tra- 

x.  139,  xxiv.  55.     II.  The  views  of  dition    a   careless  storyteller.     An 

the  Indians  are  given  in  De  Vries.  account,  to   be    of  highest  value, 

Compare     too     R.     Williams     in  must  be    written    immediately    at 

Knowles,  275.     III.  The  N.  Eng-  the  time  of  the   event     The  eye- 

land  statements,  in  Winthrop,  ii.  96,  witness,  the  earw  »tness  often   per- 

97,   136.     Gorton,    59.      Hubbard,  suades    memory  into  a   belief  of 

441,  and  365.    The  traditionary  ac-  inventions.     Examples  of  this  will 

count  of  the  battle  on    Strickland  occur. 
Plain,  preserved    by  Trumbull,    i.        2  Hubbard,  444. 


294  PROGRESS  OF  NEW  YORK. 

CHAP,  enforced  ;  and  export  duties  were  substituted.1     Man- 
~- ^-  hattan  began  to  prosper,  when  its  merchants  obtained 

1648.  freedom  to  follow  the  impulses  of  their  own  enterprise. 
The    glorious   destiny   of  the    city   was  anticipated. 
"  When  your  commerce  becomes  established,  and  your 
ships  ride  on  every  part  of  the  ocean,  throngs  that  look 
towards  you  with  eager  eyes  will  be  allured  to  embark 
for  your  island."     This  prophecy  was,  nearly  two  cen- 
turies ago,  addressed  by  the  merchants  of  Amsterdam 
to  the  merchants  of  Manhattan.2     At  that  time,  Am- 
sterdam was  esteemed  the  first  commercial  city,  not  of 
Europe  only,  but  of  the  world :  who  could  have  fore- 
seen, that  the   population  and  wealth  oi   that  famed 
emporium,  would  one  day  be  so  far  excelled  by  the 
maturity  of  the  little  settlement  that  had  barely  saved 
its  life  from  the  vengeance  of  the  savages  ?    The  Island 
of  New  York  was  then  chiefly  divided  among  farmers  ; 

1649.  the  large  forests  which  covered  the  Park  and  the  adja- 
cent region,  long  remained  a  common  pasture,  where, 
for  yet  a  quarter  of  a  century,  tanners  could  obtain  bark, 
and  boys  chestnuts  ;3  and  the  soil  was  so  little  valued, 
that  Stuyvesant  thought  it  no  wrong  to  his  employers4 
to    purchase  of  them  at  a  small   price  an    extensive 
bowery  just  beyond  the  coppices,  among  which  browsed 
the  goats  and  kine  from  the  village. 

With  so  feeble  a  population,  it  was  impossible  to 

protect  the  eastern  boundary  of  New  Netherland.       Of 

what  avail  were  protests  against  actual  settlers  ?    Stuy- 

'  vesant  was  instructed  to  preserve  the  House  of  Good 

65o'  Hope  at  Hartford ;    but  while  he  was  claiming  the 

country  from  Cape  Cod  to  Cape  Henlopen,  there  was 

1  Albany  Records,  iv.  1,  3,  9, 13.  2  Ibid.  vii.  226. 

This  volume  contains   the   corre-  3  Lovelace,  in  J.   W.  Moulton'a 

spondence  of  Stuyvesant  and  the  New  Orange,  33. 

West  India  Company.  4  Albany  Records,  iv.  24 


STRIFE   WITH   NEW   ENGLAND. 


295 


danger  that  the  New  England  men  would  stretch  their  CHAP 
settlements  to  the  North  River,  intercept  the  navigation  — — 
from  Fort  Orange,  and  monopolize  the  fur-trade.1     The 
commercial  corporation   would    not   risk  a    war ;  the 
expense   would    impair   its  dividends.     "  War,"  they 
declared,  "  cannot  in  any  event  be  for  our  advantage  ; 
the  New  England   people   are  too  powerful  for  us." 
No  issue  was  left  but  by  negotiation  ;  Stuyvesant  him- 
self repaired  as  ambassador  to  Hartford,  and  was  glad  1650 
to  conclude  a  provisional  treaty,  which  allowed  New     u 
Netherland  to  extend  on  Long  Island  as  far  as  Oyster 
Bay,  on  the  main  to  the  neighborhood  of  Greenwich. 
This  intercolonial  treaty  was  acceptable  to  the  West 
India  Company,  but  was  never  ratified  in  England ; 
its  conditional  approbation  by  the  States  General  is 
the  only  Dutch  state-paper  in  which  the  government 
of  the  republic  recognized  the  boundaries  of  the  prov- 
ince on  the  Hudson.     The  West  India  Company  could 
never  obtain  a  national  guaranty  for  the  integrity  of 
their  possessions.2 

The  war  between  the  rival  republics  in  Europe  did  1651 
not  extend  to  America;  we  have  seen  the  prudence  of  1654 
Massachusetts  restrain  the  colonies  ;  in  England,  Roger 
Williams3  delayed  an  armament  against  New  Nether- 
land.       It   is    true,   that   the  West    India    Company, 
dreading  an  attack  from  New  England,  had  instructed  1652 
their  governor  "to  engage  the  Indians  in  his  cause."4     15." 
But  the  friendship  of  the  Narragansetts  for  the  Puritans 
could  not  be  shaken.     "  I  am  poor,"  said  Mixam,  one 

1  Albany  Records,  vii.  3  ;  iv.  32.  compare  Albany  Records,  iv.  120  ; 

2  Treaty,   in    Trumbull,  i.    192.  vii.   147—150:    Trumbull,  i.  202: 
Hutchinson,  i.  447.    Hazard,  ii.  218.  Second  Amboyna  Tragedy,  Hazard, 
Compare  Albany  Records,  iv.   14,  ii.  257 :    Documents,  in  Hazard,  ii. 
15,  Id,  28,  32,  35,  &c.  &c.  73,  207.  204—272  :    Verplanck,   in    N.    A. 

3  Williams,  in  Knowles,  263.  Review,  viii.  95 — 105:    Irving,  in 

4  Albany  Records,  iv.  84.     But  Knickerbocker,  ii.  48. 


296  NEW  ALBION.     NEW  SWEDEN. 

CHAP,  of  their  sachems,  "  but  no  presents  of  goods,  or  of  guns 

— '"•"  or  of  powder  and  shot,  shall  draw  me  into  a  conspiracy 
against  my  friends  the  English."  The  naval  successes 

1(553.  of  the  Dutch  inspired  milder  counsels;  and  the  news 
of  peace  in  Europe  soon  quieted  every  apprehension. 

The  provisionary  compact  left  Connecticut  in  pos- 
session of  a  moiety  of  Long  Island ;  the  whole  had 
often,  but  ineffectually,  been  claimed  by  Lord  Stirling. 

1634.  Near  the  southern  frontier  of  New  Belgium,  on  Dela- 
21.     ware  Bay,  the  favor  of  Strafford  had  also  obtained  for 

1641   Sir  Edward  Ployden  a  patent  for  New  Albion.     The 

1648.  county  never  existed,  except  on  parchment.  The  lord 
palatine  attempted  a  settlement;  but,  for  want  of  a 
pilot,  he  entered  the  Chesapeake ;  and  his  people  were 
absorbed  in  the  happy  province  of  Virginia.  He  was 
never  able  to  dispossess  the  Swedes.1 

With  the  Swedes,  therefore,  powerful  competitors 
for  the  tobacco  of  Virginia  and  the  beaver  of  the 
Schuylkill,  the  Dutch  were  to  contend  for  the  banks 
of  the  Delaware.  In  the  vicinity  of  the  river,  the 
Swedish  company  was  more  powerful  than  its  rival ; 
but  the  whole  province  of  New  Netherland  was  ten- 
fold more  populous  than  New  Sweden.  From  motives 

1651.  of  commercial  security,  the  Dutch  built  Fort  Casimh, 
on  the  site  of  Newcastle,  within  five  miles  of  Chris 
tiana,   near  the  mouth  of  the  Brandywine.     To  the 
Swedes  this  seemed  an  encroachment ;  jealousies  en- 

1654.  sued;  and  at  last,  aided  by  stratagem  and  immediate 
superiority  in  numbers,  Rising,  the  Swedish  governor, 
overpowered  the  garrison.  The  aggression  was  fatal 

IG54   to  the  only  colony  which  Sweden  had  planted.     The 
655.  metropolis  was  exhausted  by  a  long  succession  of  wars  ; 

1  B.  Plantagenet's  Description  of     phia.     Hazard,  i.  160,  &c.    Wiu- 
New  Albion,  1648,  in  the  library     throp,  ii.  325. 
of  the  Library  Company,  Philadel- 


k'KK.NTH,  KN<:USH.  WITCH 

••"•sxionsoi-'.- 
iulhe 

1655. 


CONQUEST  OF  NEW   SWEDEN  297 

the  statesmen  and  soldiers  whom  Gustavus  had  edu-  CHAP 

XV 

cated,  had  passed  from  the  public  service ;  Oxenstiern,  -^ v-~ 
after  adorning  retirement  by  the  sublime  pursuits  of 
philosophy,  was  no  more  ;  a  youthful  and  licentious 
queen,  greedy  of  literary  distinction,  and  without  capa- 
city for  government,  had  impaired  the  strength  of  the 
kingdom  by  nursing  contending  factions,  and  then 
capriciously  abdicating  the  throne.  Sweden  had  ceased 
to  awaken  fear  or  inspire  respect;  and  the  Dutch 
company  fearlessly  commanded  Stuyvesant  to  "revenge  1654 
their  wrong,  to  drive  the  Swedes  from  the  river,  or  -^ 
compel  their  submission."  The  order  was  renewed ; 
and  in  September,  1655,  the  Dutch  governor,  collecting  1655 
a  force  of  more  than  six  hundred  men,  sailed  into  the 
Delaware  with  the  purpose  of  conquest.  Resistance  had 
been  unavailing.  One  fort  after  another  surrendered  : 
to  Rising  honorable  terms  were  conceded  ;  the  colonists  Sept 
were  promised  the  quiet  possession  of  their  estates ; 
and,  in  defiance  of  protests  and  the  turbulence  of  the 
Scandinavians,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Dutch  was  estab- 
lished. Such  was  the  end  of  NEW  SWEDEN,1  the 
colony  that  connects  our  country  with  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  and  the  nations  that  dwell  on  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia. 
It  maintained  its  distinct  existence  for  a  little  more 
than  seventeen  years,  and  succeeded  in  establishing 
permanent  plantations  on  the  Delaware.  The  de- 
scendants of  the  colonists,  in  the  course  of  generations, 
widely  scattered  and  blended  with  emigrants  of  other 
lineage,  constitute  probably  more  than  one  part  in  two 
hundred  of  the  present  population  of  our  country.  At 

1  Albany  Records,  xiii.  349 — 358,  dish   Annals.      Compare    Swedish 

367,  2,  7 ;    iv.  157,  166,  186,  204,  Records,  translated  and  printed  in 

&c.   222.     Acrelius,    an    accurate  vols.  iv.  and  v.  of  Hazard's    Hist 

historian,   Campanius,    a    heedless  Register, 
one.     Of  late  writers,  Clay's  Swe- 

VOL.  ii.  38 


298  AMSTERDAM  OBTAINS  A   PROVINCE. 

CHAP,  the  surrender,  they  did  not  much  exceed  seven  hundred 

-  souls.     Free  from  ambition,  ignorant  of  the  ideas  which 

were  convulsing  the  English  mind,  it  was  only  as  Prot- 
estants that  they  shared  the  impulse  of  the  age.  They 
cherished  the  calm  earnestness  of  religious  feeling ; 
they  reverenced  the  bonds  of  family  and  the  purity  of 
morals ;  their  children,  under  every  disadvantage  of 
want  of  teachers  and  of  Swedish  books,  were  well 
instructed.  With  the  natives  they  preserved  peace 
A  love  for  Sweden,  their  dear  mother  country,  the 
abiding  sentiment  of  loyalty  towards  its  sovereign, 
continued  to  distinguish  the  little  band  ;  at  Stockholm, 
they  remained  for  a  century  the  objects  of  a  disinter- 
ested and  generous  regard ;  affection  united  them  in 
the  New  World ;  and  a  part  of  their  descendants  still 
preserve  their  altar  and  their  dwellings  round  the  graves 
of  their  fathers.1 

1656       The  conquest  of  the  Swedish  settlements  was  fol- 
lowed   by   relations   bearing   a   near   analogy    to  the 
provincial  system  of  Rome.     The  West  India  Company 
desired  an  ally  on  its  southern  frontier ;  the  country 
above  Christiana  was  governed  by  Stuyvesant's  deputy; 
Dec.  while  the  city  of  Amsterdam  became,  by  purchase,  the 
proprietary  of  Delaware,  from  the  Brandywine  to  Bom- 
bay Hook ;  and  afterwards,  under  cessions  from  the  na- 
658,  tives,  extended  its  jurisdiction  to  Cape  Henlopen.     But 

1 656  did  a  city  ever  govern  a  province  with  forbearance  ?  The 

1657  noble  and  right  honorable  lords,  the  burgomasters  of 
Amsterdam,  instituted  a  paralyzing  commercial  monop- 
oly, and  required  of  the  colonists  an  oath  of  absolute 
obedience  to  all  their  past  or  future  commands.     But 
Maryland  was  free ;    Virginia  governed   itself.     The 

1  Kalm's  Travels.    W.  Perm's  Letter.     Clay's  Swedish  Annals. 


PROSPERITY   OF   NEW   NETHERLAND.  299 

restless  colonists,  almost  as  they  landed,  and  even  the  CHAP. 

XV. 

soldiers  of  the  garrison,  fled  in  troops  from  the  dominion  — -v^- 
of  Amsterdam  to  the  liberties  of  English  colonies.    The 
province  of  the  city  was  almost  deserted  ;  the  attempt 
to  elope  was  punishable  by  death,  and  scarce  thirty 
families  remained.1 

During  the  absence  of  Stuyvesant  from  Manhattan,  1655 
the  warriors  of  the  neighboring  Algonquin  tribes,  never 
reposing  confidence  in  the  Dutch,  made  a  desperate 
assault  on  the  colony.  In  sixty-four  canoes,  they  ap- 
peared before  the  town,  and  ravaged  the  adjacent 
country.  The  return  of  the  expedition  restored  confi- 
dence. The  captives  were  ransomed,  and  industry 
repaired  its  losses.  The  Dutch  seemed  to  have  firmly 
established  their  power,  and  promised  themselves  hap- 
pier years.  New  Netherland  consoled  them  for  the 
loss  of  Brazil.2  They  exulted  in  the  possession  of  an 
admirable  territory,  that  needed  no  embankments 
against  the  ocean.  They  were  proud  of  its  vast  extent, 
from  New  England  to  Maryland,  from  the  sea  to  the 
Great  River  of  Canada,  and  the  remote  north-western 
wilderness.  They  sounded  with  exultation  the  channel 
of  the  deep  stream,  which  was  no  longer  shared  with 
the  Swedes  ;  they  counted  with  delight  its  many  lovely 
runs  of  water,  on  which  the  beaver  built  their  villages ; 
and  the  great  travellers  who  had  visited  every  con- 
tinent, as  they  ascended  the  Delaware,  declared  it  one 
of  the  noblest  rivers  in  the  world.  Its  banks  were 
more  inviting  than  the  lands  on  the  Amazon. 

Meantime  the  country  near  the  Hudson  gained  by 

i  Albany  Records,  iv.  217,  222,        2  Vander  Donk,  p.  8,  &c.  5,  &c 

^23,  237,  273,  311  ;    xviii.    43,    29,  «  Wat  treurt  men  om  Brazijl,  vol  snoode 
400.     Gordon's    Pennsylvania,    23.  Portugeezen; 

Compare  Albany  Records,  x.  397—  Terwijl  ona  Vander  Donk   verioont  dit 
,j       '  Nieuvve  Land?" 


300  DUTCH  MAXIMS  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

CHAP,  increasing  emigration.  Manhattan  was  already  the 
— ->~  chosen  abode  of  merchants  ;  and  the  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment invited  them  by  its  good  will.  If  Stuyvesant 
sometimes  displayed  the  rash  despotism  of  a  soldier,  he 
was  sure  to  be  reproved  by  his  employers.  Did  he 
change  the  rate  of  duties  arbitrarily  ?  The  directors, 
1650  sensitive  to  commercial  honor,  charged  him  "to  keep 
1 6*60.  everj  contract  inviolate."  Did  he  tamper  with  the 
currency  by  raising  the  nominal  value  of  foreign  coin  ? 
The  measure  was  rebuked  as  dishonest.  Did  he  at- 
tempt to  fix  the  price  of  labor  by  arbitrary  rules  ?  This 
also  was  condemned  as  unwise  and  impracticable.  Did 
he  interfere  with  the  merchants  by  inspecting  their 
accounts  ?  The  deed  was  censured  as  without  prece- 
dent "in  Christendom ;"  and  he  was  ordered  to  "treat 
the  merchants  with  kindness,  lest  they  return,  and  the 
country  be  depopulated."  Did  his  zeal  for  Calvinism 
lead  him  to  persecute  Lutherans  ?  He  was  chid  for 
his  bigotry.1  Did  his  hatred  of  "the  abominable  sect 
of  Quakers  "  imprison  and  afterwards  exile  the  blame- 
less Bowne  ?  "  Let  every  peaceful  citizen,"  wrote 
the  directors,  "  enjoy  freedom  of  conscience ;  this 
maxim  has  made  our  city  the  asylum  for  fugitives  from 
every  land ;  tread  in  its  steps,  and  you  shall  be 
blessed."2 

Private  worship  was,  therefore,  allowed  to  every 
religion.  Opinion,  if  not  yet  enfranchised,  was  already 
tolerated.  The  people  of  Palestine,  from  the  destruc- 
tion of  their  temple,  an  outcast  and  a  wandering  race, 
were  allured  by  the  traffic  and  the  candor  of  the  New 
World ;  and  not  the  Saxon  and  Celtic  races  only,  the 

i  Albany  Records,  iv.  19, 525,  84,    pare,  on  Quaker  persecutions,  xix. 
128,  212.  1,  2,  3,  11,  12,  18-24;  xx.  213, 

»  Ibid,  xviii.  221 ;  iv.  427.  Com-    214,  231—233,  291. 


EMIGRANTS  TO  NEW  NETHERLAND.  301 

children  of  the  bondmen  that  broke   from  slavery  in  CHAP. 
Egypt,   the   posterity  of  those  who   had  wandered  in  ^^- 
Arabia,  and  worshipped  near  Calvary,  found   a  home, 
liberty,  and  a  burial-place  on  the  Island  of  Manhattan.1 

The  emigrants  from  Holland  were  themselves  of  the 
most  various  lineage  ;  for  Holland  had  long  been  the 
gathering-place  of  the  unfortunate.  Could  we  trace 
the  descent  of  the  emigrants  from  the  Low  Countries 
to  New  Netherland,  we  should  be  carried  not  only  to 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  the  borders  of  the  German 
Sea,  but  to  the  Protestants  who  escaped  from  France  after 
the  massacre  of  Bartholomew's  eve  ;  and  to  those  earlier 
inquirers  who  were  swayed  by  the  voice  of  Huss  in 
the  heart  of  Bohemia.  New  York  was  always  a  city 
of  the  world.  Its  settlers  were  relics  of  the  first  fruits 
of  the  reformation,  chosen  from  the  Belgic  provinces 
and  England,  from  France  and  Bohemia,  from  Germa 
ny  and  Switzerland,  from  Piedmont  and  the  Italian 
Alps. 

The  religious  sects,  which,  in  the  middle  ages,  had 
been  fostered  by  the  municipal  liberties  of  the  south  of 
France,  were  the  harbingers  of  modern  freedom,  and 
had  therefore  been  sacrificed  to  the  inexorable  feudal- 
ism of  the  north.  After  a  bloody  conflict,  the  plebeian 
reformers,  crushed  by  the  merciless  leaders  of  the  mili- 
tary aristocracy,  escaped  to  the  highlands  that  divide 
France  and  Italy.  Preserving  the  discipline  of  a 
benevolent,  ascetic  morality,  with  the  simplicity  of  a 
spiritual  worship, 

"  When  all  our  fathers  worshipped  stocks  and  stones," 

it  was  found,  on  the  progress  of  the  reformation,  that  they 
had  by  three  centuries  anticipated  Luther  and  Calvin. 

»  Albany  Rec.  iv.  203,  212 ;  xv.  140,  141;  xi  21,  240,  and  140, 141, 159. 


302  EMIGRANTS  TO  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

CHAP,  The  hurricane  of  persecution,   which   was  to  sweep 
•— v^~  Protestantism  from  the  earth,  did  not  spare  their  seclu- 
sion ;  mothers  with  infants  were  rolled  down  the  rocks, 
and  the    bones  of   martyrs  scattered  on  the    Alpine 
1 056    mountains.     Was  there  no  asylum  for  the  pious  Wal- 
19.     denses  ?     The  city  of  Amsterdam  offered  the  fugitives 
a  free  passage  to  America,  and  a  welcome  reception 
was  prepared  in  New  Netherland1  for  the  few  who 
were  willing  to  emigrate. 

The  persecuted  of  every  creed  and  every  clime  were 
invited  to  the  colony.  When  the  Protestant  churches 
in  Rochelle  were  razed,  the  Calvinists  of  that  city 
were  gladly  admitted ;  and  the  French  Protestants 
came  in  such  numbers,  that  the  public  documents  were 
sometimes  issued  in  French  as  well  as  in  Dutch  and 
English.2  Troops  of  orphans  were  sometimes  shipped 
for  the  milder  destinies  of  the  New  World  ;  a  free 
passage  was  offered  to  mechanics ;  for  "  population 
was  known  to  be  the  bulwark  of  every  state."  The 
government  of  New  Netherland  had  formed  just  ideas 
of  the  fit  materials  for  building  a  commonwealth  ;  they 
desired  "farmers  and  laborers,  foreigners  and  exiles, 
men  inured  to  toil  and  penury."3  The  colony  in- 
creased ;  children  swarmed  in  every  village  ; 4  the  new 
year  and  the  month  of  May  were  welcomed  with  noisy 
frolics :  new  modes  of  activity  were  devised  ;  lumber 
was  shipped  to  France;5  the  whale  pursued  off  the 
coast ;  the  vine,  the  mulberry,  planted  ;  flocks  of  sheep 
as  well  as  cattle  were  multiplied  ; 6  and  tile,  so  long 

1  Albany  Records,  iv.  223.  Lam-  2  Albany  Records,  xiv.  233 ;  17. 

brechtsten,  p.  65,  without  quoting  425,  461 ;  xviii.  295. 

his  authority,  says  six  hundred  came  3  Ibid,  xviii.  35  ;  viii.  143. 

over.     There  could  not  have  been  4  For  instance,  ibid.  xix.  74. 

so   many.      On   a    later    occasion,  5  Ibid,  xviii.  47. 

1663,     the     proposed     emigration  6  Ibid.  iv.  91,   73,  92,  260,  326 

failed.    Albany  Records,  iv.  223.  Vander  Donk,  c.  xiv. 


AFRICANS   IN  NEW   NETHERLAND.  303 

imported  from    Holland,1   began  to  be    manufactured  CHAP 
near  Fort  Orange.     New  Amsterdam  could,  in  a  few   — ^ 
years,  boast  of  stately  buildings,  and  almost  vied  with  1664 
Boston.      "  This  happily-situated  province,"   said  its 
inhabitants,  "  may  become  the  granary  of  our  Father- 
land ;  should  our  Netherlands  be  wasted  by  grievous 
wars,  it.  will  offer  our  countrymen   a  safe  retreat;  by 
God's   blessing,   we  shall   in   a  few  years    become  a 
mighty  people." 

Thus  did  various  nations  of  the  Caucasian  race  assist 
in  colonizing  our  central  states.  The  African  also  had 
his  portion  on  the  Hudson.  The  West  India  Compa- 
ny, which  sometimes  transported  Indian  captives  to 
the  West  Indies,2  having  large  establishments  on  the 
coast  of  Guinea,  at  an  early  day  introduced  negroes  lt>26 
into  Manhattan,  and  continued  the  negro  slave-trade 
without  remorse.  We  have  seen  Elizabeth  of  England 
a  partner  in  the  commerce,  of  which  the  Stuarts,  to  the 
days  of  Queen  Anne,  were  distinguished  patrons  ;  the 
city  of  Amsterdam3  did  not  blush  to  own  shares  in  a 
slave-ship,  to  advance  money  for  the  outfits,  and  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  returns.  In  proportion  to  population, 
New  York  had  imported  as  many4  Africans  as  Virginia.  166 i 
That  New  York  is  not  a  slave-state  like  Carolina,  is 
due  to  climate,  and  not  to  the  superior  humanity  of  its 
founders.  Stuyvesant  was  instructed  to  use  every  exer- 
tion to  promote  the  sale  of  negroes.5  They  were  im- 
ported sometimes  by  way  of  the  West  Indies,  often  di- 
rectly from  Guinea,6  and  were  sold  at  public  auction  to 
the  highest  bidder.7  The  average  price8  was  less  than 

1  Albany  Records,  xiv.  21 ;  iv.        5  Albany  Records,  iv.  371. 

93;  iii.  2.  6  Ibid.  iv.  2;  viii.  14.    The  Rec 

2  Ibid,  xviii.  193.  ordg   contain  permits  for  the  voy 

3  Ibid.  viii.  383.  ages,  the  numbers  imported,  &c. 

4  Ibid.  xxii.  308,  244  ;  xviii.  116,  t  ibid.  iv.  332. 
272,  299 ;  xiii.  340.  8  ibid,  xviii.  72. 


304  FIRST  STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  POWER  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

CHAP,  one  hundred  and  forty  dollars.     The  monopoly  of  the 

•~~  traffic  was  not  strictly  enforced ;  and  a  change  of  policy 

sometimes  favored  the  export  of  negroes  to  the  English 

colonies.1      The  enfranchised  negro   might  become  a 

freeholder.2 

With  the  Africans  came  the  African  institution  of 
abject  slavery ;  the  large  emigrations  from  Connecticut 
engrafted  on  New  Netherland  the  Puritan  idea  of 
popular  freedom.  There  were  so  many  English  at 
Manhattan  as  to  require  an  English  secretary,  preachers 
who  could  speak  in  English  as  well  as  in  Dutch,  and  a 
publication  of  civil  ordinances  in  English.3  Whole 
towns  had  been  settled  by  New  England  men,  who, 
having  come  to  America  to  serve  God  with  a  pure  con- 
science, and  desiring  to  provide  for  the  outward  com- 
forts and  souls'  welfare  of  their  posterities,  planted 
New  England  liberties  in  a  Congregational  way,  with 
the  consent,  and  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Dutch.4 
Their  presence  and  their  activity  foretold  a  revolution. 
In  the  Fatherland,  the  power  of  the  people  was  un- 
known ;  in  New  Netherland,  the  necessities  of  the 
colony  had  given  it  a  twilight  existence,  and  delegates 
from  the  Dutch  towns,  at  first  twelve,  then  perhaps 

1642.  eight  in  number,  had  mitigated  the  arbitrary  authority 
of  Kieft.  There  was  no  distinct  concession  of  legisla- 
tive power  to  the  people  ;  but  the  people  had,  without 
a  teacher,  become  convinced  of  the  right  of  resistance. 

1 644   The  brewers  refused  to  pay  an  arbitrary  excise  :  "  Were 
igf  we  to  yield,"  said  they,  "  we  should  offend   the  eight 
men,  and  the  whole  commonalty."     The  large  propri- 
etaries did  not  favor  popular  freedom ;  the  commander 

1644.  of  Rensselaer  Stein  had  even  raised  a  battery,  that  "the 

1  Albany  Records,  iv.  333,   172,        3  Albany  Records,  iv.  74 
371,  456  ;  xix.  26 ;  xi.  35.  «  Ibid.  xix.  409-^19. 

2  Ibid,  xxiL  331      But  compare 
ii  843, 


FIRST   STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  POWER  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  305 

canker  of  freemen "  might  not  enter  the  manor ;  but  CHAP. 
the  patrons  cheerfully  joined  the  free  boors  in  resisting  -^-~ 
arbitrary  taxation.     As  a  compromise,  it  was  proposed  1647. 
that,  from  a  double   nomination   by  the  villages,  the 
governor  should  appoint  tribunes,  to  act  as  magistrates 
in  trivial  cases,  and  as  agents  for  the  towns,  to  give 
their   opinion    whenever   they   should    be    consulted. 
Town -meetings  were  absolutely  prohibited.1 

Discontents  increased.     Vander  Donk   and   others 
were  charged  with  leaving  nothing  untried  to  abjure 
what  they  called  the  galling  yoke  of  an  arbitrary  gov-  1649 
ernment.      A    commission   repaired    to    Holland     for  1652 
redress  ;  as  farmers,  they  claimed  the  liberties  essential  1650. 
to  the   prosperity  of  agriculture ;  as  merchants,  they 
protested  against  the  intolerable  burden  of  the  customs ; 
and  when  redress  was  refused,  tyranny  was  followed 
by   its   usual    consequence — clandestine     associations 
against  oppression.2     The  excess  of  complaint  obtained 
for  New  Amsterdam  a  court  of  justice  like  that  of  the  1652 
metropolis ;    but  the  municipal    liberties  included  no      4. 
political  franchise  ;  the  sheriff3  was  appointed  by  the 
governor ;  the    two    burgomasters   arid   five    schepens 
made  a  double  nomination  of  their  own   successors, 
from  which  "  the  valiant  director  himself  elected  the 
board."4     The  city  had  privileges,  not  the  citizens. 
The  province   gained  only  the   municipal  liberties,  on 
which  rested  the  commercial  aristocracy  of  Holland. 
Citizenship  was  a  commercial  privilege,  and  not  a  po- 
litical enfranchisement.5     It  was  not  much  more  than 
a  license  to  trade.6 

1  Albany  Records,  iii.  187,  188 ;        •*  Albany  Records,  xix.  33,  34. 
?li.  74,  82,  &c.  5  So  afterwards,  in  1657.     Alba- 

2  Tbid.  iv.  25,  29,  30,  33,  68.  ny  Records,  xv.  54—56. 

3  Ibid.  xiii.  96—99 ;  viii.  139—        6  ibid.  xxiv.  45.    Compare  xx. 
142.  247, 248. 

VOL.  ii.  39 


306  FIRST  STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   POWER  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 


The  system  was  at  war  with  Puritan  usages  ;   the 
—  ^  Dutch  in  the  colony  readily  caught  the  idea  of  relying 
1653.  on  themselves;  and  the  persevering  restlessness  of  the 
Nov.   people  led  to  a  general  assembly  of  two  deputies  from 
to     each  village  in  New  Netherland  ;    an  assembly  which 
Stuyvesant  was  unwilling  to  sanction,  and  could  not  pre- 
vent.   As  in  Massachusetts,  this  first  convention1  spuing 
from  the  will  of  the  people  ;  and  it  claimed  the  right  of 
deliberating  on  the  civil  condition  of  the  country. 

"  The  States  General  of  the  United  Provinces  "  — 
such  was  the  remonstrance  and  petition,  drafted  by 
George  Baxter,  and  unanimously  adopted  by  the  con- 
vention —  "  are  our  liege  lords  ;  we  submit  to  the  laws 
of  the  United  Provinces  ;  and  our  rights  and  privileges 
ought  to  be  in  harmony  with  those  of  the  Fatherland, 
for  we  are  a  member  of  the  state,  and  not  a  subjugated 
people.  We,  who  have  come  together  from  various  parts 
of  the  world,  and  are  a  blended  community  of  various 
lineage;  we,  who  have,  at  our  own  expense,  exchanged 
our  native  lands  for  the  protection  of  the  United  Prov- 
inces ;  we,  who  have  transformed  the  wilderness  into 
fruitful  farms,  —  demand,  that  no  new  laws  shall  be 
enacted  but  with  consent  of  the  people,  that  none  shall 
be  appointed  to  office  but  with  the  approbation  of  the 
people,  that  obscure  and  obsolete  laws  shall  never  be 
revived."2 

Stuyvesant  was  taken  by  surprise.  He  had  never 
had  faith  in  "the  wavering  multitude;"3  and  doubts 
of  man's  capacity  for  self-government  dictated  his  re- 
ply. "  Will  you  set  your  names  to  the  visionary  notions 

1  The  original  is  Lantdag   Dutch  by  the  Dutch  originals.    Of  course 

Records,  2.  I  have  not  adhered  strictly  to  the 

*  Albany  Records,  ix.  28  —  33.    I  words  of  Vander  Kemp's  honest  but 

have  selected  and  compressed  the  ungrammatical  version. 

prominent  points.    Every  word  will,  3  Ibid.  vii.  73. 
I  trust,  be  found  to  be  sanctioned 


FIRST   STRUGGLE   FOR   THE   POWER   OF  THE   PEOPLE.  307 

of  an   Englishman  ?     Is  there  no  one  of  the  Nether-  CHAP 

xv. 
lands'  nation  able  to  draft  jour  petition  ?     And  your  - — ~ 

prayer  is  so  extravagant,  you  might  as  well  claim  to  1653 
send  delegates  to  the   assembly  of  their  high  mighti- 
nesses themselves. 

1.  "  Laws  will  be  made  by  the  director  and  council. 
Evil  manners  produce   good  laws  for  their  restraint ; 
and  therefore  the  laws  of  New  Netherlands  are  good. 

2.  "  Shall  the  people  elect  their  own  officers  ?     If 
this  rule  become  our  cynosure,  and  the  election  of 
magistrates  be  left  to  the  rabble,  every  man  will  vote 
for  one  of  his  own  stamp.     The  thief  will  vote  for  a 
thief;  the    smuggler  for  a   smuggler;  and  fraud  and 
vice  will  become  privileged. 

3.  "  The  old  laws  remain  in  force  ;  directors  will 
never  make  themselves  responsible  to  subjects."1 

The  delegates,  in  their  rejoinder,  appealed  to  the  Dec, 
inalienable  rights  of  nature.  "  We  do  but  design  the 
general  good  of  the  country  and  the  maintenance  of 
freedom ;  nature  permits  all  men  to  constitute  society, 
and  assemble  for  the  protection  of  liberty  and  proper- 
ty."2 Stuyvesant,  having  exhausted  his  arguments, 
could  reply  only  by  an  act  of  power ;  and  dissolving  the 
assembly,  he  commanded  its  members  to  separate  on 
pain  of  arbitrary  punishment.  "  We  derive  our  author- 
ity from  God  and  the  West  India  Company,  not  from 
the  pleasure  of  a  few  ignorant  subjects : "  such  was 
his  farewell  message  to  the  convention  which  he 
dispersed. 

The  West  India  Company3  declared  this  resistance 
to  arbitrary  taxation  to  be   "  contrary  to  the  maxims 

i  Albany  Records,  ix.  38 — 46.         &c.;    xiv.     169,    171.      Compare 
a  Ibid.  ix.  48,  49,  &c.  &c.  xviii.  77. 

3  Tbid.    iv.   129,   133,   168,   175, 


308  NEW    iNETHERLAND     AND   MARYLAND. 

CHAP,  of  every  enlightened  government."     "  We  approve  the 

^^  taxes  you  propose ; " — thus  they  wrote  to  Stuyvcsant — 

"  have  no  regard  to  the  consent  of  the  people  ; "  "  let 

them  indulge  no  longer  the  visionary  dream,  that  taxes 

can  be  imposed  only  with  their  consent."     But  the 

people  continued  to  indulge   the   dream ;  taxes  could 

1654  not  be  collected  ;  and  the  colonists,  in  their  desire  that 

1658.  popular    freedom    might    prove    more    than    a   vision, 
listened  with  complacency  to  the  hope  of   obtaining 
English  liberties  by  submitting  to  English  jurisdiction. 

Cromwell  had  planned  the  conquest  of  New  Nether- 
land  ;  in  the  days  of  his  son,  the  design  was  revived  ; 
and  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  threatened  New 
Netherland  with  danger  from  the  south,  the  north,  and 
from  England. 

In  previous  negotiations  with  the    agent   of   Lord 

1659.  Baltimore,  the  envoy  of  New  Netherland   had   firmly 
maintained  the  right  of  the    Dutch  to  the  southern 
bank  of  the  Delaware,  pleading  purchase  and  coloni- 
zation before  the  patent  to  Lord  Baltimore  had  been 
granted.     The  facts  were  conceded  ;  but,  in  the  pride 
of  strength,  it  was  answered,  that  the  same  plea  had 
not  availed  Clayborne,  and  should  not  avail  the  Dutch.1 
On  the  restoration,  Lord  Baltimore  renewed  his  claims 
to  the  country  from  Newcastle    to  Cape  Henlopen  ; 
they  were  defended  by  his  agents  in  Amsterdam  and 
in   America,   and  were  even  presented  to  the  States 
General  of  the   United  Provinces.     The   College  of 
XIX.   of  the   West    India   Company  was   inflexible ; 

IC60.  conscious  of  its  rights,  it  refused  to  surrender  its  pos- 
1.     sessions,  and  resolved  "  to  defend   them  even  to  the 


1  Heerman's  Journal  of  his  em-  xviii.  337 — 365.  Compare  also  viii 
baasy  to  Maryland,  in  reply  to  Col.  185.  So  too  Maryland  Papers,  in 
N.  Utie,  &.C.,  in  Albany  Records,  N.  Y.  Hist  Coll.  iii.  369—386. 


NEW    NETHERLAND     AND   VIRGINIA.  309 

spilling  of  blood."1     Beekman,  the  Dutch  lieutenant-  CHAP. 
governor  on  the  Delaware,  was  faithful  to  his  trust ;  ^~ 
the  jurisdiction  of   his  country  was  maintained;   and  I659 
when  young  Baltimore,  with  his  train,  appeared  at  the  \  664. 
mouth  of  the  Brandywine,  he  was  honored  as  a  guest ; 
but  the   proprietary  claims  of  his  father  were   trium- 
phantly resisted.     The  Dutch,  and  Swedes,  and  Finns, 
kept  the  country  safely  for  William  Penn.     At  last,  the 
West  India  Company,   desiring  a  barrier  against  the 
English  on  the  south,  transferred  the  whole  country  1663 
on   the   Delaware   to  the  city  of  Amsterdam.      The    and* 
banks  of  the  river  from  Cape  Henlopen  to  the  falls  at     u  y' 
Trenton,  certainly  remained  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Dutch. 

With  Virginia,  during  the  protectorate,  the  most 
amicable  relations  had  been  confirmed  by  reciprocal 
courtesies.  Even  during  the  war  between  England  1653 
and  Holland,  friendly  intercourse  had  continued  ;  for 
why,  it  was  said,  should  there  be  strife  between  old 
friends  and  neighbors,  brothers  in  Christ,  dwelling  in 
countries  so  far  from  Europe  ?  Commerce,  if  inter- 
rupted by  a  transient  hesitancy  as  to  its  security,  soon 
recovered  its  freedom,  and  was  sometimes  conducted 
even  with  Europe  by  way  of  Virginia.  Equal  rights  1659 

1  This  statement  is  opposite  to  ing  of  blood.     Once  more  turn  to 

the  account  which  the  enemies  of  Chalmers,  634.     "  Charles  Calvert, 

Penn  have  given.     It  is  neverthe-  the  son  of  the  proprietary,  immedi- 

less  the   true   one.     The   original  ately  occupied  what  his  opponents 

despatch  of  the  West  India  Com-  had    relinquished."      This   also   is 

pany  exists  at  Albany.   The  English  wrong.     The   heir  of  Lord   Balti- 

reader  may  consult  Albany   Rec-  more  made  a  visit  on  the  river,  and 

ords,  viii.  293,  294,  where  he  will  was  hospitably  entertained  by  Beek- 

find  the  words   of  the  text.     Now  man  as  a  guest,  not  as  a  proprieta- 

compare    Chalmers,    634.      "  The  ry.     See  Records,  xvii.  286,  297. 

West  India  Company  sent  private  But    Chalmers    hated    Penn,    and 

orders  to  its  officers  to  withdraw  to  recklessly  or  passionately  falsified 

the  northward  of  Lord  Baltimore's  history.     And  how  hard  to  destroy 

boundary."     The  company  sent  pri-  error  !    How  many  have  copied  this 

vate  orders  not  to  give  up  the  coun-  statement  of  Chalmers ! 
try,  bid  to  defend  it  even  to  the  spitt- 


310  CONTESTS  WITH  NEW  ENGLAND. 

CHAP,  in   the  colonial   courts  were    reciprocally  secured  by 
— v^  treaty.     But  upon  the  restoration,  the  act  of  naviga- 
1G64.  tion,  at  first  evaded,  was  soon  enforced;  and  by  degrees, 
10.     Berkeley,  whose  brother  coveted  the  soil  of  New  Jer- 
sey, threatened  hostility.    Clouds  gathered  in  the  south.1 
In  the  north,  affairs  were  still  more  lowering.     Mas- 
sachusetts did  not  relinquish  its  right  to  an  indefinite 
extension  of  its  territory  to  the  west ;  and  the  people 
wf  Connecticut  not  only  increased  their  pretensions  on 

1662.  Long  Island,  but  regardless  of  the  pro  visionary  treaty, 
claimed   West  Chester,9  and  were  steadily  advancing 
towards  the  Hudson.     To  stay  these  encroachments, 

1663.  Stuyvesant  himself  repaired  to  Boston,3  and  entered  his 
complaints  to  the  convention  of  the  United  Colonies. 
But  Massachusetts  maintained  a  neutrality ;  the  voyage 
was,  on  the  part  of  the  Dutch,  a  confession  of  weak- 
ness ;    and  Connecticut   inexorably  demanded    delay 
An  embassy  to  Hartford  renewed  the  language  of  re- 
monstrance with  no  better  success.     Did  the   Dutch 

1663.  assert  their  original  grant  from  the  States  General  ?    It 

i^t*    was  interpreted  as  conveying  no  more  than  a  commer- 

26-     cial  privilege.     Did  they  plead  discovery,  purchase  from 

the  natives,  and  long  possession  ?     It  was  replied,  that 

Connecticut,  by  its  charter,  extended  to  the  Pacific. 

"  Where,    then,"  demanded    the    Dutch    negotiators, 

"  where  is  New  Netherland  ?  " — And  the  agents  of 

Connecticut,  with  provoking  indifference,  replied,  "  We 

do  not  know."4 

These  unavailing  discussions  were  conducted  during 

1  Albany  Records,  iv.  133,  165,  3  Hazard,  ii.  479-483. 

168,  198,  211,  236,  248,  282,  351,  «  Journal  of  the  Envoys  to  Hart- 

320,  382  ;  xxiv.  101,  &c.,  300,  399,  ford,   in  Albany  Records,  xvi.  299, 

401  ;  xviii.  157,  &c.,  197,258— 262.  315.      Compare     also    Trumbull's 

a  Ibid.  xxi.  97,  and  xxi.  381, 388,  Connecticut  and  the  numerous  doc- 

and  xxiv.  161 — 174.  uments  in  Hazard. 


DISCONTENTS   IN   NEW   NETHERLAND.  311 

the  horrors  of  a  half-year's  war  with  the  savages  round  CHAP 

Esopus.     The    rising   village   on-  the    banks   of  that 

stream  was  laid  waste ;  many  of  its  inhabitants  mur- 
dered or  made  captive ;  and  it  was  only  on  the  approach 
of  winter  that  an  armistice  restored  tranquillity.1  The  NoT- 
colony  had  no  friend  but  the  Mohawks.  "  The 
Dutch,"  said  the  faithful  warriors  of  the  Five  Nations, 
u  are  our  brethren.  With  them  we  keep  but  one 
council  fire  ;  we  are  united  by  a  covenant  chain."  a 

The  contests  with  the  natives,  not  less  than  with 
New  England,  displayed  the  feebleness  of  New  Neth- 
erland.  The  province  had  no  popular  freedom,  and 
therefore  had  no  public  spirit.  In  New  England,  there 
were  no  poor  ;  in  New  Netherland,  the  poor  were  so 
numerous,  it  was  difficult  to  provide  for  their  relief,3 
The  Puritans  easily  supported  schools  every  where, 
and  Latin  schools  in  their  larger  villages  ;  on  Manhat- 
tan, a  Latin  school  lingered,  with  difficulty,  through  two 
vears,  and  was  discontinued.4  In  New  England,  the 
people,  in  the  hour  of  danger,  rose  involuntarily,  and 
defended  themselves  ;  in  the  Dutch  province,  men  were 
unwilling  to  go  to  the  relief  even  of  villages5  that  were 
in  danger  from  the  Indians,  and  demanded  protection 
from  the  company,  which  claimed  to  be  their  absolute 
sovereign. 

The  necessities  of  the  times  wrung  from  Stuyvesant  1663 
the  concession  of  an  assembly;  the   delegates  of  the      i°T 
villages  would  only  appeal  to  the  States  General  and 
to  the  West  India  Company  for   protection.     But  the 
States  General  had,  as  it  were,  invited  aggression  by 
abstaining  from  every  public  act  which  should  pledge 

1  Albany  Records,  xvi.  194 — 284.        *  Albany  Records,  iv.  303 ;  xviii. 

2  Ibid,  xviii.  102,  103 ;  xix.  97.         19,  44,  164. 

3  Ibid,  xix.  187,  377.  5  Ibid,  xviii.  55—59. 


312  DISCONTENTS  IN  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

CHAP   their  honor  to  the  defence  of  the  province ;  and  the 

^^-  West   India  Company  was  too  penurious  to  risk  its 
funds,  where  victory  was  so  hazardous.     A  new  and 

1664  more  full  diet  was  held  in  the  spring  of  1664.  Rumors 
of  an  intended  invasion  from  England  had  reached  the 
colony  ;  and  the  popular  representatives,  having  remon- 
strated against  the  want  of  all  means  of  defence,  and 
foreseeing  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  the  English, 
demanded  plainly  of  Stuyvesant — "  If  you  cannot  pro- 
tect us,  to  whom  shall  we  turn  ? "  The  governor, 
faithful  to  his  trust,  proposed  the  enlistment  "  of  every 
third  man,  as  had  more  than  once  been  done  in  the 
Fatherland."  And  thus  Manhattan  was  left  without 
defence  ;  the  people  would  not  expose  life  for  the  West 
India  Company ;  and  the  company  would  not  risk 
bankruptcy  for  a  colony  which  it  valued  chiefly  as 
property.  The  established  government  could  not  but 
fall  into  contempt.  In  vain  was  the  libeller  of  the 
May  magistrates  fastened  to  a  stake  with  a  bridle  in  his 
mouth.  Stuyvesant  confessed  his  fear  of  the  colonists. 

June  «  To  ask  aid  of  the  English  villages  would  be  inviting 
the  Trojan  horse  within  our  walls." — "  I  have  not 
time  to  tell  how  the  company  is  cursed  and  scolded , 
the  inhabitants  declare  that  the  Dutch  have  never  had 
a  right  to  the  country."  Half  Long  Island  had  revolt- 
ed ;  the  settlements  on  the  Esopus  wavered ;  the 
Connecticut  men  had  purchased  of  the  Indians  all  the 
seaboard  as  far  as  the  North  River.  Such  were  the 
narratives  of  Stuyvesant  to  his  employers. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  United  Provinces  could  not 
distrust  a  war  with  England.  No  cause  for  war  ex- 
isted except  English  envy  of  the  commercial  glory  and 
prosperity  of  Holland.  In  profound  confidence  of 
firm  peace,  the  countrymen  of  Grotius  were  planning 


CONQLEST  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND  BY  ENGLAND.      313 

liberal  councils  ;  at  home  they  designed  an  abandon-  CHAP, 
ment  of  the  protective  system  and  concessions  to  free  ~^~ 
trade  ;  in  the  Mediterranean,  their  fleet,  under  De 
Ruyter,  was  preparing  to  suppress  the  piracies  of  the 
Barbary  states,  and  punish  the  foes  of  Christendom 
and  civilization.  And  at  that  very  time,  the  English 
were  engaging  in  a  piratical  expedition  against  the 
Dutch  possessions  on  the  coast  of  Guinea.  The  king  1664 
had  also,  with  equal  indifference  to  the  chartered  rights 
of  Connecticut,  and  the  claims  of  the  Netherlands, 
granted  to  the  duke  of  York  not  only  the  country  from  Mar 
the  Kennebec  to  the  St.  Croix,  but  the  whole  territory 
from  the  Connecticut  River  to  the  shores  of  the  Dela- 
ware ;  and  under  the  conduct  of  Richard  Nicolls, 
groom  of  the  bedchamber  to  the  duke  of  York,  the 
English  squadron  which  carried  the  commissioners  for 
New  England  to  Boston,  having  demanded  recruits  in 
Massachusetts,  and  received  on  board  the  governor  of 
Connecticut,  approached  the  narrows,  and  quietly  cast 
anchor  in  Gravesend  Bay.  Long  Island  was  lost; 
soldiers  from  New  England  pitched  their  camp  near 
Breukelen  Ferry. 

In  New  Amsterdam  there  existed  a  division  of  coun- 
sels.  Stuyvesant,  faithful  to  his  employers,  struggled  to 
maintain  their  interests  ;  the  municipality,  conscious 
that  the  town  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  English  fleet, 
desired  to  avoid  bloodshed  by  a  surrender.  A  joint 
committee  from  the  governor  and  the  city  having  de- 
manded of  Nicolls  the  cause  of  his  presence,  he 
replied  by  requiring  of  Stuyvesant  the  immediate  ac- 
knowledgment of  English  sovereignty,  with  the  condi- 
tion of  security  to  the  inhabitants  in  life,  liberty,  and 
property.  At  the  same  time,  Winthrop  of  Connecticut, 
whose  love  of  peace  and  candid  affection  for  the  Dutch 
VOL.  ii.  40 


314  CONQUEST  OF  NEW  NETHERLAND. 

CHAP,  nation  had  been  acknowledged   by  the   West   Tndia 
-~~~  Company,  advised  his  personal  friends  to  offer  no  re- 
sistance.     "  The    surrender,"    Stuyvesant   nobly    an- 

I  f\  (*  A 

Sept.  swered,  "  would  be  reproved  in  the  Fatherland."  The 
J-  burgomasters,  unable  to  obtain  a  copy  of  the  letter  from 
Nicolls,  summoned,  not  a  town-meeting, — that  had  been 
inconsistent  with  the  manners  of  the  Dutch, — but  the 
piincipal  inhabitants  to  the  public  hall,  where  it  was 
resolved,  that  the  community  ought  to  know  all  that 

Sfp1-  related  to  its  welfare.  On  a  more  urgent  demand  for 
the  letter  from  the  English  commander,  Stuyvesant 
angrily  tore  it  in  pieces ;  and  the  burgomasters,  instead 
of  resisting  the  invasion,  spent  their  time  in  framing  a 

Sept  protest  against  the  governor.  On  the  next  day,  a  new 
deputation  repaired  to  the  fleet ;  but  Nicolls  declined 
discussion.  "  When  may  we  visit  you  again  ?  "  said 
the  commissioners.  "  On  Thursday,"  replied  Nicolls ; 
"  for  to-morrow  I  will  speak  with  you  at  Manhattan." 
— "  Friends,"  it  was  smoothly  answered,  "  are  very 
welcome  there." — "  Raise  the  white  flag  of  peace," 
said  the  English  commander,  "  for  I  shall  come  with 
ships  of  war  and  soldiers."  The  commissioners  re- 
turned to  advocate  the  capitulation,  which  was  quietly 
effected  on  the  following  days.  The  aristocratic  liber- 
ties of  Holland  yielded  to  the  hope  of  popular  liberties 
like  those  of  New  England. 

The  articles  of  surrender,  framed  under  the  auspices 
of  the  municipal  authority,  by  the  mediation  of  the 
younger  Winthrop  and  Pynchon,  accepted  by  the 
magistrates  and  other  inhabitants  assembled  in  the 
town  hall,  and  not  ratified  by  Stuyvesant  till  the  sur- 
render had  virtually  been  made,  promised  security  to  the 
customs,  the  religion,  the  municipal  institutions,  the 
possessions  of  the  Dutch.  The  enforcement  of  the 


HISTORY    OF    NEW   JERSEY.  315 

navigation  act  was  delayed  for  six  months.     During:  CHAP 

XV 

that  period,  direct  intercourse  with  Holland  remained  — -^ 
free.  The  towns  were  still  to  choose  their  own  magis-  ife'co^ 
trates,  and  Manhattan,  now  first  known  as  New  York,  and' 

zxii 

to   elect   its   deputies,  with  free  voices  in   all  public 
affairs. 

The  colonists  were  satisfied;  very  few  embarked  for 
Holland;  it  seemed,  rather,  that  English  liberties  were 
to  be  added  to  the  security  of  property.     In  a  few  days,  1664 
Fort  Orange,  now  named  Albany,  from  the  Scottish  title     34 
of  the  duke  of  York,  quietly  surrendered ;  and  the  league 
with  the  Five  Nations  was  renewed.     Early  in  October,  Oct  J 
the  Dutch  and  Swedes  on  the  Delaware  capitulated ; 
and  for  the  first  time  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  of  the  old 
thirteen   states  was  in  possession  of  England.     Our 
country  had  obtained  geographical  unity. 

The  dismemberment  of  New  Netherlands  ensued  on  June 
its  surrender.  The  duke  of  York  had  already,  two  23>  ^ 
months  before  the  conquest,  assigned  to  Lord  Berkeley 
and  Sir  George  Carteret,  both  proprietaries  of  Carolina, 
the  land  between  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware.  In 
honor  of  Carteret,  the  territory,  with  nearly  the  same 
bounds  as  at  present,  except  on  the  north,  received 
the  name  of  New  Jersey.  If  to  fix  boundaries  and 
grant  the  soil,  could  constitute  a  state,  the  duke  of  York 
gave  political  existence  to  a  commonwealth.  Its  moral 
character  was  moulded  by  New  England  Puritans,  Eng- 
lish Quakers,  and  dissenters  from  Scotland. 

Meantime  avarice  paid  its  homage  to  freedom;  and  1665 
the  royalists,  who  were  become  lords  of  the  soil,  in-     10' 
different  to  liberty,  sought  to  foster  their  province,  by 
most  liberal   concessions.      Security   of  persons   and 
property  under  laws  to  be  made  by  an  assembly  com- 
posed of  the  governor  and  council,  and  at  least  an  equal 


316  HISTORY   OF    NEW   JERSEY. 

CHAP  number  of  representatives  of  the  people  ;  freedom  from 
— v~  taxation  except  by  the  colonial  assembly  ;  a  combined 
opposition  of  the  people  and  the  proprietaries  to  any 
arbitrary  impositions  from  England;  freedom  of  judg- 
ment, conscience,  and  worship,  to  every  peaceful  citi- 
zen ;  these  were  the  allurements  to  New  Jersey.  To 
the  proprietaries  were  reserved  a  veto  on  provincial 
enactments,  the  appointment  of  judicial  officers,  and 
the  executive  authority.  Lands  were  promised  at  a 
moderate  quitrent,  not  to  be  collected  till  1670.  The 
duke  of  York,  now  president  of  the  African  Company, 
was  the  patron  of  the  slave-trade;  the  proprietaries,  more 
true  to  the  prince  than  to  humanity,  offered  a  bounty  of 
seventy-five  acres  for  the  importation  of  each  able  slave 
That  the  tenure  of  estates  might  rest  on  equity,  the 
Indian  title  to  lands  was  in  all  cases  to  be  quieted. 

The  portion  of  New  Netherlands  which  thus  gained 
popular  freedom,  was  at  that  time  almost  a  wilderness. 
The  first  occupation  of  Fort  Nassau  in  Gloucester,  and 
the  grants  to  Godyn  and  Blomaert,  above  Cape  May, 
had  been  of  so  little  avail  that,  in  1634,  not  a  single 
white  man  dwelt  within  the  Bay  of  the  Delaware. 
The  pioneers  of  Sir  Edmund  Ployden,  and  the  restless 
emigrants  from  New  Haven,  had  both  been  unsuccess- 
ful. Here  and  there,  in  the  counties  of  Gloucester  and 
Burlington,  a  Swedish  farmer  may  have  preserved  his 
dwelling  on  the  Jersey  side  of  the  river;  and,  before 
1664,  perhaps  three  Dutch  families  were  established 
about  Burlington ;  but  as  yet  West  New  Jersey  had 
not  a  hamlet.  In  East  Jersey,  of  which  the  hills  had 
been  praised  by  Verrazzani,  and  the  soil  trodden  by  the 
mariners  of  Hudson,  a  trading  station  seems,  in  1618, 
to  have  been  occupied  at  Bergen.  In  December,  1651, 
Augustine  Herman  purchased,  but  hardly  took  posses- 


HISTORY    OF    NEW   JERSEY.  317 

sion  of  the  land  that  stretched  from  Newark  Bay  to  the  CHAP. 

XV 

west  of  Elizabethtown,  while,  in  January,  1658,  other  — <~ 
purchasers   obtained    the   large  grant   called   Bergen, 
where  the  early  station  became  a  permanent  settlement. 
Before  the  end  of  1664,  a  few  families  of  Quakers  ap- 
pear also  to  have  found  a  refuge  south  of  Raritan  Bay. 
More  than  a   year  earlier,  New  England  Puritans,  1663 

J  /  O  7       •»  -•  • 

sojourners  on  Long  Island,  solicited  of  the  Dutch,  and,     26. 
as  the  records  prove,  obtained  leave  to  establish  on  the  Rec^S 

.  ...  .  .  iv.415. 

banks  of  the  Raritan  and  the  Minnisink,  their  cherished 
institutions,  and  even  their  criminal  jurisprudence.   Soon  , 

16o4 

after  the  surrender,  a  similar  petition  was  renewed  to    Sept 

20 

the  representative  of  the  duke  of  York ;  and,  as  the 
parties,  heedless  of  the  former  grant  to  Herman,  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  from  the  Indians  a  deed  of  an  ex-    O^ 
tensive   territory   on   Newark  Bay,  Nichols,  ignorant 
as  yet  of  the  sale  of  New  Jersey,  and  having  already 
granted  land  on  Hackensack  Neck,  encouraged  emi-  Octa 
gration    by    ratifying  the  sale.     The  tract  afterwards  Dec. % 
became  known  as  "  the  Elizabethtown  purchase,"  and 
led   to  abundant  litigation.     In  April,  1665,  a  further  ^65 
patent  was  issued,  under  the  same  authority,  to  Wil-      8. 
liam    Goulding   and    others,    for   the   region   extend- 
ing from  Sandy  Hook  to  the  mouth  of  the  Raritan. 
For  a  few  months,  East  New  Jersey  bore  the  name  of 
Albania.     Nichols  could  boast  that  "  on  the  new  pur-   Nov. 
chases  from  the  Indians,  three  towns  were  beginning;" 
and  under  grants  from  the  Dutch  and  from  the  governor 
of  New  York,  the  coast  from  the  old  settlement  of  Ber- 
gen to  Stindy  Hook,  along  Newark  Bay,  at  Middletown, 
at  Shrewsbury,  was  enlivened  by  humble  plantations, 
that  were  soon  to  constitute  a  semicircle  of  villages. 

In  August,   1665,  Philip  Carteret  appeared  among 
the  tenants  of  the  scattered  cabins,  and  was  quietly  re- 


318  HISTORY   OF  NEW  JERSEY. 

CHAP  ceived  as  the  governor  appointed  for  the  colony  by  the 

— v-^  proprietaries.  In  vain  did  Nichols  protest  against  the 
J  '  division  of  his  province,  and  struggle  to  secure  for  his 
patron  the  territory  which  had  been  released  in  igno- 
rance. The  incipient  people  had  no  motive  to  second 
his  complaints ;  the  freedom  of  New  Jersey  assured  its 
separate  existence.  Yet  so  feeble  were  the  beginnings 
of  the  commonwealth,  it  was  but  a  cluster  of  four  houses, 
which,  in  honor  of  the  kind-hearted  Lady  Carteret,  was 
now  called  Elizabethtown,  and  rose  into  dignity  as  the 
capital  of  the  province. 

To  New  England  messengers  were  despatched  to 
publish  the  tidings  that  Puritan  liberties  were  warranted 

1666.  a  shelter  on  the  Raritan.     Immediately,  an  association 

of  church  members  from  the  New  Haven  colony  sailed 

into  the  Passaic,  and,  at  the  request  of  the  governor, 

holding  a  council  with  the  Hackensack  tribe,  themselves 

^jy    extinguished  the  Indian  title  to  Newark.     "  With  one 

heart,  they  resolved  to  carry  on  their  spiritual  and  town 

affairs  according  to  godly  government ; "  to  be  ruled  un- 

'  der  their  old  laws  by  officers  chosen  from  among  them- 

1668.  selves;  and  when,  in  May,  1668,  a  colonial  legislative 
26.     assembly  was  for  the  first  time  convened  at  Elizabeth- 
town,  the  influence  of  Puritans  transferred  the  chief 
features  of  the  New  England  codes  to  the  statute  book 
of  New  Jersey. 

The  province  increased  in  numbers  and  prosperity. 
The  land  was  accessible  and  productive ;  the  temperate 
climate  delighted  by  its  salubrity;  there  was  little 
danger  from  the  neighboring  Indians,  whose  strength 
had  been  broken  by  long  hostilities  with  the  Dutch; 
the  Five  Nations  guarded  the  approaches  from  the  inte- 
rior; and  the  vicinity  of  older  settlements  saved  the 
emigrants  from  the  distresses  of  a  first  adventure  in  the 


HISTORY   OF   NEW  JERSEY.  319 

wilderness.     Every  thing  was  of  good  augury,  till,  in  CHAP. 
1670,  the  quitrents  of  a  half-penny  an  acre  were  seri-  ^v— 
ously  spoken  of.     But  on  the  subject  of  real  estate  in  jyjarch 
the  New  World,  the  Puritans  differed  from  the  lawyers     ^ 
widely;  asserting  that  the  heathen,  as  a  pait  of  the 
lineal  descendants  of  Noah,  had  a  rightful  claim  to  their 
lands.     The  Indian  deeds,  executed  partly  with  the  ap- 
probation of  Nichols,  partly  with  the  consent  of  Carteret 
himself,  were,  therefore,  pleaded  as  superior  to  propri- 
etary grants;  the  payment  of  quitrents  was  refused; 
disputes  were  followed   hy  confusion ;   and,  in  May, 
1672,  the  disaffected  colonists,  obeying  the  impulse  of    May 
independence,  rather  than  of  gratitude,  sent  deputies  to     14- 
a  constituent  assembly  at  Elizabethtown.    By  that  body, 
Philip  Carteret  was  displaced,  and  his  office  transferred 
to  the  young  and  frivolous  James  Carteret,  a  natural  son 
if  Sir  George.     The  proprietary  officers  could  make  no 
resistance.     William  Pardon,  who  withheld  the  records,    June 

15 

found  safety  only  in  flight.     Following  the  advice  of  the 
council,  after  appointing   John   Berry  as  his  deputy,  July  1 
Philip  Carteret  hastened  to  England,  in  search  of  new 
authority,  while  the  colonists  remained  in  the  undis- 
turbed possession  of  their  farms. 

The  liberties  of  New  Jersey  did  not  extend  be-  1664 
yond  the  Delaware;  the  settlements  in  New  Nether-  1672 
lands,  on  the  opposite  bank,  consisting  chiefly  of  groups 
of  Dutch  round  Lewistown  and  Newcastle,  and  Swedes 
and  Finns  at  Christiana  Creek,  at  Chester,  and  near 
Philadelphia,  were  retained  as  a  dependency  of  New 
York.  The  claim  of  Lord  Baltimore  was  denied  with 
pertinacity.  In  1672,  the  people  of  Maryland,  desiring 
to  stretch  the  boundary  of  their  province  to  the  bay, 
invaded  Lewistown  with  an  armed  force.  The  country 
was  immediately  reclaimed,  as  belonging  by  conquest 


320  NEW  YORK   AFTER  THE  CONQUEST. 

CHAP,  to  the  duke  of  York ; J  and  Delaware  still  escaped  the 

-\  V.        m 

-* — ~  imminent  peril  of  being  absorbed   in  Maryland. 

1664.  jn  respect  to  civil  liberties,  the  territory  shared  the  for 
tunes  of  New  York ;  and  for  that  province  the  establish 
ment  of  English  jurisdiction  was  not  followed  by  the  ex- 
pected concessions.  Connecticut,  surrendering  all  claims 

l G64.  to  Long  Island,  obtained  a  favorable  boundary  on  the 
main.  The  city  of  New  York  was  incorporated  ;  the 
municipal  liberties  of  Albany  were  not  impaired ;  but 
the  province  had  no  political  franchises,  and  therefore 
no  political  unity.  In  the  governor  and  his  subser- 
vient council  were  vested  the  executive  and  the  highest 
1564  judicial  powers;  with  the  court  of  assizes,  composed 
16^7  of  justices  of  his  own  appointment,  holding  office  at 
his  will,  he  exercised  supreme  legislative  power,  pro- 
mulgated a  code  of  laws,  and  modified  or  repealed 
them  at  pleasure.  No  popular  representation,  no  true 
English  liberty,  was  conceded.  Once,  indeed,  and 

1665.  only  once,  a  convention  was  held  at  Hempstead,  chiefly 
for  the  purpose  of  settling  the  respective  limits  of  the 
towns  on  Long  Island.     The  rate  for  public  charges 
was  there  perhaps  agreed  upon  ;2  and  the  deputies  were 
induced  to  sign  an  extravagantly  loyal  address  to  the 
duke  of  York.     But  "factious  republicans"  abounded; 
the  deputies  were  scorned  by  their  constituents  for 
their  inconsiderate  servility;3  and  the  governor,  who 

666.  never  again  conceded  an  assembly,  was  "  reproached 
and  vilified  '*  for  his  arbitrary  conduct.  Even  the 
Dutch  patents  for  land  were  held  to  require  renewal, 
and  Nichols  gathered  a  harvest  of  fees  from  exacting 
new  title-deeds. 

1  Documents,  in  Smith's  New  of  assizes  and  the  general  assem- 

Jersey,  c.  iii.  iv.  bly. 

a  Nichols,  in  Chalmers,  597.  3  Correct  Chalmers,  577,  598, 

Nichols,  in  these  words,  evident-  599,  by  Wood,  87 ;  or  Additions  to 

ly  distinguishes  between  the  court  the  code  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Coll.  i.  418. 


NEW    YORK   RESISTS  ARBITRARY  TAXATION.  321 

Under  Lovelace,  his  successor,  the  same  system  was  CHAP 
more  fully  developed.  Even  on  the  southern  shore  of  — X. 
the  Delaware,  the  Swedes  and  Finns,  the  most  en-  1667 

May. 

during   of  all  emigrants,  were   roused    to  resistance   1669 
"  The  method  for  keeping  the  people  in  order  is  sever- 
ity, and  laying  such  taxes  as  may  give  them  liberty  for 
no  thought  but  how  to  discharge  them."     Such  was    Oct 
the  remedy  proposed  in  the  instructions  from  Lovelace 
to  his  southern  subordinate,  and  carried  into  effect  by 
an  arbitrary  tariff. 

In  New  York,  when  the  established  powers  of  the 
towns  favored  the  demand  for  freedom,  eight  villages  Oct. 
soon  united  in  remonstrating  against  the  arbitrary  gov- 
ernment ;  they  demanded  the  promised  legislation  by 
annual  assemblies.  But  absolute  government  was  the 
settled  policy  of  the  royal  proprietary  ;  and  taxation  for 
purposes  of  defence,  by  the  decree  of  the  governor,  was  1670 
the  next  experiment.  The  towns  of  Southold,  South-  g. 
ampton,  and  Easthampton,  expressed  themselves  will- 
ing to  contribute,  if  they  might  enjoy  the  privileges  of 
the  New  England  colonies.  The  people  of  Huntington 
refused  altogether  ;  for,  said  they,  "  we  are  deprived  of 
the  liberties  of  Englishmen."  The  people  of  Jamaica 
declared  the  decree  of  the  governor  a  disfranchisement, 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  English  nation.  Flushing 
and  Hempstead  were  equally  resolute.  The  votes  of 
the  several  towns  were  presented  to  the  governor  and 
council ;  they  were  censured  as  "  scandalous,  illegal,  Dec. 
and  seditious,  alienating  the  peaceable  from  their  duty 
and  obedience,"  and,  according  to  the  established 
precedents  of  tyranny,  were  ordered  to  be  publicly 
burnt  before  the  town-house  of  New  York.1 

i  S.  Wood's  Sketch  of  the  First  Settlement  of  Long  Island,  p.  8G— 96. 
VOL.  II.  41 


322        RECONQUEST  OF  NEW  YORK  BY  THE  DUTCH. 

CHAP.       It  was  easy  to  burn  the  votes  which  the  yeomanry 

-— ~~  of  Long  Island  had  passed  in  their  town-meetings. 

But,  meantime,  the   forts  were  not  put  in  order ;  the 

government  of  the  duke  of  York  was  hated  as  despotic, 

and  when,  in  the  next  war  between  England  and  the 

1G73.  Netherlands,  a  small  Dutch  squadron,  commanded  by 

j*  ii  v 

30.  the  gallant  Evertsen  of  Zealand,  approached  Manhat- 
tan, the  city  was  surrendered  without  a  blow  ;  the 
people  of  New  Jersey  made  no  resistance,  and  the 
counties  on  the  Delaware,  recovering  greater  privileges 
than  they  had  enjoyed,  cheerfully  followed  the  exam- 
ple.1 The  quiet  of  the  neighboring  colonies  was  secured 
by  a  compromise  for  Long  Island  and  a  timely  message 
from  Massachusetts.  The  year  in  which  Champlain 
and  the  French  entered  New  York  on  the  north  as 
enemies  to  the  Five  Nations,  Hudson  and  the  Dutch 
appeared  at  the  south  as  their  friends.  The  Mohawk 
chiefs  now  came  down  to  congratulate  their  brethren 
on  the  recovery  of  their  colony.  "  We  have  always," 
said  they,  "  been  as  one  flesh.  If  the  French  come 
down  from  Canada,  we  will  join  with  the  Dutch  na- 
tion, and  live  and  die  with  them  ;  "  and  the  words  of 

1673,  love  were  confirmed  by  a  belt  of  wampum.2     New 
York  was  once  more  a  province  of  the  Netherlands. 

The  moment  at  which  Holland  and  Zealand  retired  for 
a  season  from  American  history,  like  the  moment  of  their 
entrance,  was  a  season  of  glory.  The  little  nation  of 
merchants  and  manufacturers  had  just  achieved  its 
independence  of  Spain,  and  given  to  the  Protestant 
world  a  brilliant  example  of  a  federal  republic,  when 
its  mariners  took  possession  of  the  Hudson.  The 
country  was  now  reconquered,  at  a  time  when  the 

i  Albany    Records,    xxiii.    318,        8  Albany    Records,    xxiii.    211 
323—326,  332,  &c.  &c. 


WAR  BETWEEN  ENGLAND  AND  THE  DUTCH.  323 

provinces,  single-handed,  were  again  struggling  for  CHAP. 
existence  against  jet  more  powerful  antagonists.  - — ^ 
France,  supported  by  the  bishops  of  Munster  and 
Cologne,  had  succeeded  in  involving  England  in  a 
conspiracy  for  the  political  destruction  of  England's 
commercial  rival.  Charles  II.  had  begun  hostilities  as 
a  pirate ;  and  Louis  XIV.  did  not  disguise  the  purpose 
of  conquest.  With  armies  amounting  to  two  hundred 
thousand  men,  to  which  the  Netherlands  could  oppose 
no  more  than  twenty  thousand,  the  French  monarch 
invaded  the  republic ;  and  within  a  month,  Holland  1678 
was  exposed  to  the  same  desperate  dangers  which  had 
been  encountered  a  century  before  ;  while  the  English 
fleet,  hovering  off  the  coast,  endeavored  to  land  English 
troops  in  the  heart  of  the  wealthiest  of  the  provinces. 
Ruin  was  imminent,  and  had  come  but  for  the  public 
virtue.  The  annals  of  the  human  race  record  but  few 
instances  where  moral  power  has  so  successfully  defied 
every  disparity  of  force,  and  repelled  such  desperate 
odds  by  invincible  heroism.  At  sea,  where  greatly  su- 
perior numbers  were  on  the  side  of  the  allied  fleets  of 
France  and  England,  the  untiring  courage  of  the  Dutch 
would  not  consent  to  be  defeated.  On  land,  the  dikes 
were  broken  up ;  the  country  drowned ;  the  son  of 
Grotius,  suppressing  anger  at  the  ignominious  proposals 
of  the  French,  protracted  the  negotiations  till  the  rising 
waters  could  form  a  wide  and  impassable  moat  round 
the  cities.  Was  an  invasion  still  feared  from  the  east  ? 
At  Groningen,  the  whole  population,  without  regard  to 
sex,  children  even,  labored  on  the  fortifications ;  and 
fear  was  not  permitted  even  to  a  woman.  Would 
William  of  Orange  sustain  the  crisis  with  calm  intre- 
pidity ?  Arlington,  one  of  the  joint  proprietaries  of 
Virginia,  advised  him  to  seek  advancement  by  yielding 


324  WAR  BETWEEN  ENGLAND   AND  THfc    DUTCH. 

CHAP,  to  England.  "  My  country,"  calmly  replied  the  young 
^v-L  man,  "  trusts  in  me ;  I  will  not  sacrifice  it  to  my  inter- 
1 673.  estS}  but,  if  need  be,  die  with  it  in  the  last  ditch."  The 
landing  of  British  troops  in  Holland  could  be  prevented 
only  by  three  naval  engagements.  De  Ruyter  and  the 
younger  Tromp  had  been  bitter  enemies ;  the  latter 
had  been  disgraced  on  the  accusation  of  the  former ; 
political  animosities  had  increased  the  feud.  At  the 
June  battle  of  Soulsbay,  where  the  Dutch  with  fifty-two 
'  ships  of  the  line  engaged  an  enemy  with  eighty,  De 
Ruyter  was  successful  in  his  first  manoeuvres,  while 
the  extraordinary  ardor  of  Tromp  plunged  headlong 
into  dangers  which  he  could  not  overcome ;  the  frank 
and  true-hearted  De  Ruyter  checked  himself  in  the 
career-of  victory,  and  turned  to  the  relief  of  his  rival. 
"  Oh,  there  comes  grandfather  to  the  rescue,"  shouted 
Tromp  in  an  ecstasy ;  "  I  never  will  desert  him  so  long 
as  I  breathe."  The  issue  of  the  day  was  uncertain. 
14.  In  the  second  battle,  the  advantage  was  with  the 
Dutch.  About  three  weeks  after  the  conquest  of  New 
Netherland,  the  last  and  most  terrible  conflict  took 
2if*  place  near  the  Helder.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  Dutch 
mariners  dared  almost  infinite  deeds  of  valor  ;  the  noise 
of  the  artillery  boomed  along  the  low  coast  of  Holland  ; 
the  churches  on  the  shore  were  thronged  with  suppliants, 
begging  victory  for  the  right  cause  and  their  country. 
The  contest  raged,  and  was  exhausted,  and  was  again 
renewed  with  unexampled  fury.  But  victory  was  with 
De  Ruyter  and  the  younger  Tromp,  the  guardians  oi 
their  country.  The  British  fleet  retreated,  and  was 
pursued ;  the  coasts  of  Holland  were  protected. 

For  more  than  a  century,  no  other  naval  combat 
was  fought  between  Netherlands  and  England.  The 
English  parliament,  condemning  the  war,  refused  sup- 


HOLLAND  AND  THE  RIGHTS   OF  NEUTRAL  FLAGS.  325 

plies  ;  Prussia  and  Austria  were  alarmed  ;  Spain  openly  CHAP. 
threatened,  and  Charles  II.  consented  to  treaties.  All  — ^* 
conquests  were  to  be  restored;  and  Holland,  which  1674 
had  been  the  first  to  claim  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
oceans,  against  its  present  interests,  established  by 
compact  the  rights  of  neutral  flags.  In  a  work  dedi- 
cated to  all  the  princes  and  nations  of  Christendom, 
and  addressed  to  the  common  intelligence  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  the  admirable  Grotius,  contending  that 
right  and  wrong  are  not  the  evanescent  expressions  of 
fluctuating  opinions,  but  are  endowed  with  an  immor- 
tality of  their  own,  had  established  the  freedom  of  the 
seas  on  an  imperishable  foundation.  Ideas  once  gen- 
erated live  forever.  With  the  recognition  of  maritime 
liberty,  Holland  disappears  from  our  history;  when, 
after  the  lapse  of  more  than  a  century,  this  principle 
comes  in  jeopardy,  Holland,  the  mother  of  four  of  our 
states,  will  rise  up  as  our  ally,  bequeathing  to  the  new 
federal  republic  the  defence  of  commercial  freedom 
which  she  had  vindicated  against  Spain,  and  for  which 
we  shall  see  her  prosperity  fall  a  victim  to  England. 

On  the  final  transfer  of  New  Netherland    to  Eng-    Oct 

31 

land,  after  a  military  occupation  of  fifteen  months  by 
the  Dutch,  the  brother  of  Charles  II.  resumed  the  pos- 
session of  New  York,  and  Carteret  appears  once  more 
as  proprietary  of  the  eastern  moiety  of  New  Jersey ; 
but  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  were  reserved  for  men 
who  had  been  taught  by  the  uneducated  son  of  a  poor 
Leicestershire  weaver  to  seek  the  principle  of  God  in 
their  own  hearts,  and  to  build  the  city  of  humanity  by 
obeying  the  nobler  instincts  of  human  nature. 


326 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE  PEOPLE  CALLED  QUAKERS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

CHAP       THE  nobler  instincts  of  humanity  are  the  same  in 

A.  V  I . 

"" —  every  age  and  in  every  breast.  The  exalted  hopes, 
that  have  dignified  former  generations  of  men,  will  be 
renewed  as  long  as  the  human  heart  shall  throb.  The 
visions  of  Plato  are  but  revived  in  the  dreams  of  Sir 
Thomas  More.  A  spiritual  unity  binds  together  every 
member  of  the  human  family ;  and  every  heart  contains 
an  incorruptible  seed,  capable  of  springing  up  and  pro- 
ducing all  that  man  can  know  of  God,  and  duty,  and  the 
soul.  An  inward  voice,  uncreated  by  schools,  inde- 
pendent of  refinement,  opens  to  the  unlettered  hind, 
not  less  than  to  the  polished  scholar,  a  sure  pathway 
into  the  enfranchisements  of  immortal  truth. 

This  is  the  faith  of  the  people  called  QUAKERS.  A 
moral  principle  is  tested  by  the  attempt  to  reduce  it  to 
practice. 

The  history  of  European  civilization  is  the  history 
I/  of  the  gradual  enfranchisement  of  classes  of  society. 
The  feudal  sovereign  was  limited  by  the  power  of  the 
military  chieftains,  whose  valor  achieved  his  conquests. 
The  vast  and  increasing  importance  of  commercial 
transactions  gave  new  value  to  the  municipal  privi- 
leges of  which  the  Roman  empire  had  bequeathed  the 
precedents ;  while  the  intricate  questions  that  were 
perpetually  arising  for  adjudication,  crowded  the  igno- 


FIFTH  MONARCHY   MEN  AND   MILLENARIANS. 

rant  military  magistrate  from  the  bench,  and  reserved  CHAP 
the  wearisome  toil   of  deliberation  for  the  learning  of  ^~~ 
his  clerk.     The  emancipation  of  the  country  people  fol- 
lowed.    In   every  European  code,  the  ages  of  feudal 
influence,  of  mercantile  ambition,  of  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  the  yeomanry,  appear  distinctly  in  succession. 

It  is  the  peculiar  glory  of  England,  that  her  free 
people  always  had  a  share  in  the  government.  From 
the  first,  her  freeholders  had  legislative  power  as  well 
as  freedom  ;  and  the  tribunals  were  subjected  to  popu- 
lar influence  by  the  institution  of  a  jury.  The  majority 
of  her  laborers  were  serfs  ;  many  husbandmen  were 
bondmen,  as  the  name  implies ;  but  the  established 
liberties  of  freeholders  quickened,  in  every  part  of  Eng- 
land, the  instinct  for  popular  advancement.  The 
Norman  invasion  could  not  uproot  the  ancient  institu- 
tions ;  they  lived  in  the  heart  of  the  nation,  and  rose 
superior  to  the  Conquest. 

The  history  of  England  is  therefore  marked  by  an 
original,  constant  and  increasing  political  activity  of 
the  people.  In  the  fourteenth  century,  the  peasantry, 
conducted  by  tilers,  and  carters,  and  ploughmen,  de- 
manded of  their  young  king  a  deliverance  from  the 
bondage  and  burdens  of  feudal  oppression ;  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  the  last  traces  of  villenage  were  wiped 
away;  in  the  sixteenth,  the  noblest  ideas  of  human 
destiny,  awakening  in  the  common  mind,  became  the 
central  points  round  which  plebeian  sects  were  gath- 
ered ;  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  enfranchised 
yeomanry  began  to  feel  an  instinct  for  dominion  ;  and 
its  kindling  ambition,  quickly  fanned  to  a  flame,  would 
not  rest  till  it  had  attempted  a  democratic  revolution. 
The  best  soldiers  of  the  Long  Parliament  were  country 
people ;  the  men  that  turned  the  battle  on  Marston  Mooi 


328          PROGRESS  OF  INTELLECTUAL  FREEDOM. 

CHAP,  were  farmers  and  farmers'  sons,  fighting,  as  they  be 
-v^L  lieved,  for  their  own  cause.  The  progress  from  the  rout 
of  Wat  Tyler  to  the  victories  of  Naseby,  and  Worces- 
ter, and  Dunbar,  was  made  in  less  than  three  centu- 
ries. So  rapid  was  the  diffusion  of  ideas  of  freedom,  so 
palpable  was  the  advancement  of  popular  intelligence, 
energy,  and  happiness,  that  to  whole  classes  of  enthusi- 
asts the  day  of  perfect  enfranchisement  seemed  to  have 
dawned ;  legislation,  ceasing  to  be  partial,  was  to  be 
reformed  and  renewed  on  general  principles,  and  the 
reign  of  justice  and  reason  was  about  to  begin.  In  the 
language  of  that  age,  Christ's  kingdom  on  earth,  his 
second  coming,  was  at  hand.  Under  the  excitement  ol 
hopes,  created  by  the  rapid  progress  of  liberty,  which,  to 
the  common  mind,  was  an  inexplicable  mystery,  the 
blissful  centuries  of  the  millennium  promised  to  open 
upon  a  favored  world. 

Political  enfranchisements  had  been  followed  by  the 
emancipation  of  knowledge.  The  powers  of  nature 
were  freely  examirfed  ;  the  merchants  always  tolerated 
or  favored  the  pursuits  of  science.  Galileo  had  been 
safe  at  Venice,  and  honored  at  Amsterdam  or  London. 
The  method  of  free  inquiry,  applied  to  chemistry,  had 
invented  gunpowder  and  changed  the  manners  of  the 
feudal  aristocracy  ;  applied  to  geography,  had  discov- 
ered a  hemisphere,  and,  circumnavigating  the  globe, 
made  the  theatre  of  commerce  wide  as  the  world  ; 
applied  to  the  mechanical  process  of  multiplying  books, 
had  brought  the  New  Testament,  in  the  vulgar  tongue, 
within  the  reach  of  every  class  ;  applied  to  the  rights 
of  persons  and  property,  had,  for  the  English,  built  up 
a  system  of  common  law,  and  given  securities  to  liberty 
in  the  interpretation  of  contracts.  Under  the  guidance 
of  Bacon,  the  inductive  method,  in  its  freedom,  was 


CIVIL  FREEDOM  AND   PROTESTANT  SECTS.  329 

about  to  investigate  the  laws  of  the  outward  world,  CHAP 
and  reveal  the  wonders  of  divine  Providence  as  dis-  <—•*-*- 
played  in  the  visible  universe. 

On  the  continent  of  Europe,  Descartes  had  already  1637 
applied  the  method  of  observation  and  free  inquiry  to 
the  study  of  morals  and  the  mind  ;  in  England,  Bacon 
hardly  proceeded  beyond  the  province  of  natural  philos- 
ophy. He  compared  the  subtile  visions,  in  which  the  £»%* 
contemplative  soul  indulges,  to  the  spider's  web,  and  Sd*Kl 
sneered  at  them  as  frivolous  and  empty ;  but  the  spi- 
der's web  is  essential  to  the  spider's  well-being,  and 
for  his  neglect  of  the  inner  voice,  Bacon  paid  the  terri- 
ble penalty  of  a  life  disgraced  by  flattery,  selfishness, 
and  mean  compliance.  Freedom,  as  applied  to  morals, 
was  cherished  in  England  among  the  people,  and 
therefore  had  its  development  in  religion.  The  Anglo- 
Saxons  were  a  religious  people.  Henry  II.  had  as  little 
superstitious  regard  for  the  Roman  see  as  Henry  VIII.; 
but  the  oppressed  Anglo-Saxons  looked  for  shelter  to 
the  church,  and  invoked  the  enthusiasm  of  Thomas 
a  Becket  to  fetter  the  Norman  tyrant  and  bind  the 
Norman  aristocracy  in  iron  shackles.  The  enthusiast 
fell  a  victim  to  the  church  and  to  Anglo-Saxon  liberty. 
If,  from  the  day  of  his  death,  the  hierarchy  abandoned 
the  cause  of  the  people,  that  cause  always  found  advo- 
cates in  the  inferior  clergy ;  and  WicklifTe  did  not  fear 
to  deny  dominion  to  vice  and  to  claim  it  for  justice. 
The  reformation  appeared,  and  the  inferior  clergy,  rising 
against  Rome  and  against  domestic  tyranny,  had  a  com- 
mon faith  and  common  political  cause  with  the  people 
A  body  of  the  yeomanry,  becoming  Independents,  plant- 
ed Plymouth  colony.  The  inferior  gentry  espoused 
Calvinism,  and  fled  to  Massachusetts.  The  popular 
movement  of  intellectual  liberty  is  measured  by  ad- 
VOL.  ii.  42 


330  THE   QUAKERS  A   PLEBEIAN   SECT. 

CHAP,  vances  towards  the  liberty  of  prophesying,  and  the 
-"^  liberty  of  conscience. 

The  moment  was  arrived  when  the  plebeian  mind 
should  make  its  boldest  effort  to  escape  from  hereditary 
prejudices  ;  when  the  freedom  of  Bacon,  the  enthusi- 
asm of  Wickliffe,  and  the  politics  of  Wat  Tyler,  wer<?  to 
gain  the  highest  unity  in  a  sect ;  when  a  popular,  and, 
therefore,  in  that  age,  a  religious  party,  building  upon  a 
divine  principle,  should  demand  freedom  of  mind, 
purity  of  morals,  and  universal  enfranchisement. 

The  sect  had  its  birth  in  a  period  of  intense  public 
activity — when  the  heart  of  England  was  swelling  with 
passions,  and  the  public  mind  turbulent  with  factious 
leaders ;  when  zeal  for  reform  was  invading  the 
church,  subverting  the  throne,  and  repealing  the  priv- 
ileges of  feudalism ;  when  Presbyterians  in  every 
village  were  quarrelling  with  Anabaptists  and  Inde- 
pendents, and  all  with  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the 
English  church. 

The  sect  could  arise  only  among  the  common  people, 

who  had  every  thing  to  gain  by  its  success,  and  the 

least  to  hazard  by  its  failure.     The  privileged  classes 

had  no  motive   to  develop   a  principle  before   which 

.  their  privileges  would  crumble.      "  Poor  mechanics," 

Penn,  I. 

rfMjs!  said  William  Penn,  "  are  wont  to  be  God's  great  am- 
bassadors to  mankind."     "  He  hath  raised  up  a  few 
Barela    despicable  and  illiterate  men,"  said   the  accomplished 
ia%M?1'  Barclay,  "  to  dispense  the  more  full  glad  tidings  reserved 
for  our  age."     It  was  the  comfort  of  the  Quakers,  that 
they  received  the  truth  from  a  simple  sort  of  people, 
unmixed  with  the  learning  of  schools ;  and  almost  for 

Penn ,  U. 

4m-  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  a  plebeian 
sect  proceeded  to  the  complete  enfranchisement  of 
mind,  teaching  the  English  yeomanry  the  same  method 


EDUCATION   OF   GEORGE   FOX.  331 

of  free  inquiry  which  Socrates  had  explained  to  the  CHAK 
young  men  of  Athens.  — ^ 

The  simplicity  of  truth  was  restored  by  humble  in- 
struments, and  its  first  messenger  was  of  low  degree. 
George  Fox,  the  son  of  "  righteous  Christopher,"  a 
Leicestershire  weaver,  by  his  mother  descended  from 
the  stock  of  the  martyrs,  distinguished  even  in  boyhood 
by  frank  inflexibility  and  deep  religious  feeling,  became 
in  early  life  an  apprentice  to  a  Nottingham  shoemaker, 
who  was  also  a  landholder,  and,  like  David,  and  Tam- 
erlane, and  Sixtus  V.,  was  set  by  his  employer  to  watch 
sheep.  The  occupation  was  grateful  to  his  mind,  for  • 
its  freedom,  innocency,  and  solitude ;  and  the  years  of 
earliest  youth  passed  away  in  prayer  and  reading  the 
Bible,  frequent  fasts,  and  the  reveries  of  contemplative  1644 
devotion.  His  boyish  spirit  yearned  after  excellence  ; 
and  he  was  haunted  by  a  vague  desire  of  an  unknown, 
illimitable  good.  In  the  most  stormy  period  of  the 
English  democratic  revolution,  just  as  the  Independents 
were  beginning  to  make  head  successfully  against  the 
Presbyterians,  when  the  impending  ruin  of  royalty  and 
the  hierarchy  made  republicanism  the  doctrine  of  a 
party,  and  inspiration  the  faith  of  fanatics,  the  mind  of 
Fox,  as  it  revolved  the  question  of  human  destiny,  was 
agitated  even  to  despair.  The  melancholy  natural  to 
youth  heightened  his  anguish ;  abandoning  his  flocks 
and  his  shoemaker's  bench,  he  nourished  his  inexplica- 
ble griei  by  retired  meditations,  and  often  walking 
solitary  in  the  chase,  sought  in  the  gloom  of  the  forest  F^.M, 
for  a  vision  of  God. 

He  questioned  his  life  ;  but  his  blameless  life  was 
ignorant  of  remorse.  He  went  to  many  "  priests"  for 
comfort,  but  found  no  comfort  from  them.  His  misery 
urged  him  to  visit  London ;  and  there  the  religious 


\ 

332  EDUCATION  OF   GEORGE  FOX. 

CHAP  feuds  convinced  him  that  the   great  professors  were 

—~ v-^.  dark.  He  returned  to  the  country,  where  some  advised 
him  to  marry,  others  to  join  Cromwell's  army  ;  but  his 
excited  mind  continued  its  conflicts ;  and,  as  other 
young  men  have  done  from  love,  his  restless  spirit 
drove  him  into  the  fields,  where  he  walked  many  nights 
long  by  himself  in  misery  too  great  to  be  declared. 
Yet  at  times  a  ray  of  heavenly  joy  beamed  upon  his 
soul,  and  he  reposed,  as  it  were,  serenely  on  Abra- 
ham's bosom. 

1C46.  fje  na(j  been  bre(j  in  the  church  of  England.  One 
day,  the  thought  rose  in  his  mind,  that  a  man  might  be 

rox,  SB.  bred  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  and  yet  be  unable  to 
explain  the  great  problem  of  existence.  Again  he  re- 
flected that  God  lives  not  in  temples  of  brick  and  stone, 

».  59.  but  in  the  hearts  of  the  living ;  and  from  the  parish 
priest  and  the  parish  church,  he  turned  to  the  dis- 
senters. But  among  them  he  found  the  most  expe- 

ib.  eo.  rienced  unable  to  reach  his  condition. 

1647.  Neither  could  the  pursuit  of  wealth  detain  his  mind 
from  its  struggle  for  fixed  truth.  His  desires  were 
those  which  wealth  could  not  satisfy.  A  king's  diet, 
palace,  and  attendance,  had  been  to  him  as  nothing. 
Rejecting  "  the  changeable  ways  of  religious  "  sects, 
the  "brittle  notions"  and  airy  theories  of  philosophy. 

r**t  si.  he  longed  for  "  unchangeable  truth,"  a  firm  foundation 
of  morals  in  the  soul.  His  inquiring  mind  was  gently 
led  along  to  principles  of  endless  and  eternal  .ove; 
light  dawned  within  him  ;  and  though  the  world  was 
rocked  by  tempests  of  opinion,  his  secret  and  as  yet 
IL  ea  unconscious  belief  was  firmly  stayed  by  the  anchor 
of  hope. 

The  strong  mind  of  George  Fox  had  already  risen 
above  the   prejudices  of  sects.     The  greatest  danger 


EDUCATION   OJ    GEORGE   FOX.  333 

remained.     Liberty  may  be  pushed  to  dissoluteness,  and  CHAP. 
freedom  is  the  fork  in  the  road  where  the  by-way  leads  — -*~*~ 
to  infidelity.     One  morning^.as  Fox  sat  silently  by  the  1648 
fire,  a  cloud   came  over  his  mind ;    a  baser  instinct 
seemed  to  say,  "  All  things  come  by  nature ; "  and  the 
elements  and  the  stars  oppressed  his  imagination  with 
a  vision  of  pantheism.     But  as  he  continued  musing,  a 
true  voice  arose  within  him,  and  said,  "  There  is  a 
living  God."     At  once  the  clouds  of  skepticism  rolled 
away  ;  mind  triumphed  over  matter,  and  the  depths  of 
conscience  were  cheered  and  irradiated  by  light  from  FOX,  K. 
heaven.     His  soul  enjoyed   the  sweetness  of  repose, 
and  he  came  up  in  spirit  from  the  agony  of  doubt  into 
the  paradise  of  contemplation. 

Having  listened  to  the  revelation  which  had  been 
made   to  his  soul,   he  thirsted  for  a  reform  in  every 
branch  of  learning.     The  physician  should  quit   the 
strife  of  words,  and  solve  the  appearances  of  nature  by 
an  intimate  study  of  the  higher  laws  of  being.     The 
priests,  rejecting  authority  and  giving  up  the  trade  in 
knowledge,  should   seek  oracles  of  truth  in  the  purity  Fwt  w 
of  conscience.     The  lawyers,  abandoning  their   chi- 
canery,  should   tell  their  clients  plainly,  that  he  who 
wrongs  his  neighbor  does  a  wrong  to  himself.     The    m& 
heavenly-minded   man   was    become  a   divine  and  a    «u 
naturalist,  and  all  of  God  Almighty's  making. 

Thus  did  the  mind  of  George  Fox  arrive  at  the  con- 
clusion, that  truth  is  to  be  sought  by  listening  to  the 
voice  of  God  in  the  soul.  Not  the  learning  of  the  uni- 
versities, not  the  Roman  see,  not  the  English  church, 
not  dissenters,  not  the  whole  outward  world,  can  lead 
to  a  fixed  rule  of  morality.  The  law  in  the  heart 
must  be  received  without  prejudice,  cherished  without 
mixture  and  obeyed  without  fear. 


#34  GEORGE  FOX  THE  QUAKER  PREACHER. 

CHAP.  Such  was  the  spontaneous  wisdom  by  which  he  was 
~-*— '  guided.  It  was  the  clear  light  of  reason,  dawning  as 
l^fo'  through  a  cloud.  Confident  that  his  name  was  written 

1649. 

in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life,  he  was  borne,  by  an  irre- 
pressible impulse,  to  go  forth  into  the  briery  and 
brambly  world,  and  publish  the  glorious  principles 
which  had  rescued  him  from  despair  and  infidelity,  and 
given  him  a  clear  perception  of  the  immutable  distinc- 
tions between  right  and  wrong.  At  the  very  crisis 
when  the  house  of  commons  was  abolishing  monarchy 
and  the  peerage,  about  two  years  and  a  half  from  the 
day  when  Cromwell  went  on  his  knees  to  kiss  the 
jimegf  na"d  of  the  young  boy  who  was  duke  of  York,  the 
U'il29<  Lord,  who  sent  George  Fox  into  the  world,  forbade 
him  to  put  off  his  hat  to  any,  high  or  low ;  and  he  was 
required  to  thee  and  thou  all  men  and  women,  without 
any  respect  to  rich  or  poor,  to  great  or  small.  The 
sound  of  the  church  bell  in  Nottingham,  the  home  of 
his  boyhood,  struck  to  his  heart ;  like  Milton  and 
Roger  Williams,  his  soul  abhorred  the  hireling  ministry 
of  diviners  for  money ;  and  on  the  morning  of  a  first- 
day,  he  was  moved  to  go  to  the  great  steeple-house  and 
cry  against  the  idol.  "  When  I  came  there,"  says 
Fox,"  "  the  people  looked  like  fallow  ground,  and  the 
priest,  like  a  great  lump  of  earth,  stood  in  the  pulpit 
above.  He  took  for  his  text  these  words  of  Peter — 
'  We  have  also  a  more  sure  word  of  prophecy ; '  and 
told  the  people,  this  was  the  Scriptures.  Now,  the 
Lord's  power  was  so  mighty  upon  me,  and  so  strong 
|M  w  in  me,  that  I  could  not  hold;  but  was  made  to  ciy 
out,  'Oh,  no !  it  is  not  the  Scriptures,  it  is  the  Spirit.' ' 
The  principle  contained  a  moral  revolution.  If  k 
flattered  self-love  and  fed  enthusiasm,  it  also  estab- 
lished absolute  freedom  of  mind,  trod  every  idolatry 


GEORGE  FOX  THE  QUAKER  PREACHER. 

under  foot,  and  entered  the  strongest  protest  against  CHAP 
the  forms  of  a  hierarchy.  It  was  the  principle  for  — • >~ 
which  Socrates  died  and  Plato  suffered  ;  and  now  that 
Fox  went  forth  to  proclaim  it  among  the  people,  he 
was  every  where  resisted  with  angry  vehemence,  and 
priests  and  professors,  magistrates  and  people,  swelled  F«,  n 
like  the  raging  waves  of  the  sea.  At  the  Lancaster 
sessions  forty  priests  appeared  against  him  at  once. 
To  the  ambitious  Presbyterians,  it  seemed  as  if  hell 
were  broke  loose  ;  and  Fox,  imprisoned  and  threatened 
with  the  gallows,  still  rebuked  their  bitterness  as  "  ex- 
ceeding rude  and  devilish,"  resisting  and  overcoming  n>.  145, 
pride  with  unbending  stubbornness.  Possessed  of  vast 
ideas  which  he  could  not  trace  to  their  origin,  a  myste 
ry  to  himself,  like  Cromwell  and  so  many  others  who 
have  exercised  vast  influence  on  society,  he  believed 
himself  the  special  ward  of  a  favoring  Providence,  and 
his  doctrine  the  spontaneous  expression  of  irresistible, 
intuitive  truth.  Nothing  could  daunt  his  enthusiasm. 
Cast  into  jail  among  felons,  he  claimed  of  the  public 
tribunals  a  release  only  to  continue  his  exertions ;  and 
as  he  rode  about  the  country,  the  seed  of  God  sparkled  Ibj^ 
about  him  like  innumerable  sparks  of  fire.  If  cruelly 
beaten,  or  set  in  the  stocks,  or  ridiculed  as  mad,  he 
still  proclaimed  the  oracles  of  the  voice  within  him,  and 
rapidly  gained  adherents  among  the  country  people. 
If  driven  from  the  church,  he  spoke  in  the  open  air , 
forced  from  the  shelter  of  the  humble  alehouse,  he 
slept  without  fear  under  a  haystack,  or  watched  among 
the  furze.  His  fame  increased ;  crowds  gathered,  like 
flocks  of  pigeons,  to  hear  him.  His  frame  in  prayer  is 
described  as  the  most  awful,  living  and  reverent  ever 
felt  or  seen  ;  and  his  vigorous  understanding,  soon  dis- 
ciplined by  clear  convictions  to  natural  dialectics,  made 


336  QUAKERISM   DESIGNED   AS  A   UNIVERSAL  RELIGION. 

CHAP,  him  powerful  in  the  public  discussions  to  which  he 

^v^~  defied  the  world.  A  true  witness,  writing  from  knowl- 
edge, and  not  report,  declares  that,  by  night  and  by 
day,  by  sea  and  by  land,  in  every  emergency  of  the 
nearest  and  most  exercising  nature,  he  was  always  in 

£*£;  his  place,  and  always  a  match  for  every  service  and 
103  '  occasion.  By  degrees  "the  hypocrites"  feared  to  dis- 
pute with  him ;  and  the  simplicity  of  his  principle 
found  such  ready  entrance  among  the  people,  that 
the  priests  trembled  and  scud  as  he  drew  near ;  "  so 
that  it  was  a  dreadful  thing  to  them,  when  it  was  told 
them,  *  The  man  in  leathern  breeches  is  come.' ' 

The  converts  to  his  doctrine  were  chiefly  among  the 
yeomanry;  and  Quakers  were  compared  to  the  butterflies 
that  live  in  fells.  It  is  the  boast  of  Barclay,  that  the 
simplicity  of  truth  was  restored  by  weak  instruments, 

&*^  and  Penn  exults  that  the  message  came  without  sus- 
picion of  human  wisdom.  It  was  wonderful  to  witness 
the  energy  and  the  unity  of  mind  and  character  which 
the  strong  perception  of  speculative  truth  imparted  to 
the  most  illiterate  mechanics  ;  they  delivered  the  ora- 
cles of  conscience  with  fearless  freedom  and  natural 
eloquence  ;  and  with  happy  and  unconscious  sagacity, 
spontaneously  developed  the  system  of  moral  truth, 

ib.  n.  which,  as  they  believed,  existed  as  an  incorruptible 
seed  in  every  soul. 

Every  human  being  was  embraced  within  the  sphere 
of  their  benevolence.  George  Fox  did  not  fail,  by 
570  '  letter,  to  catechize  Innocent  XI.  Ploughmen  and 
milkmaids,  becoming  itinerant  preachers,  sounded  the 
alarm  throughout  the  world,  and  appealed  to  the  con- 
sciences of  Puritans  and  Cavaliers,  of  the  Pope  and  the 
Grand  Turk,  of  the  negro  and  the  savage.  The  plans 
of  the  Quakers  designed  no  less  than  the  establishment 


THE   DIVINE   PRINCIPLE   OF   THE   QUAKERS.  337 

u~  a  universal  religion  ;  their  apostles  made  their  way  to  CHAP. 
Rome  and  Jerusalem,  to  New  England  and  Egypt ;  and  — ^^ 
some  were  even  moved  to  go  towards  China  and  Japan,  POX^SL 
and  in  search  of  the  unknown  realms  of  Prester  John. 

The  rise  of  the  people  called  Quakers  is  one  of  the 
memorable  events  in  the  history  of  man.  It  marks 
the  moment  when  intellectual  freedom  was  claimed 
unconditionally  by  the  people  as  an  inalienable  birth- 
right. To  the  masses  in  that  age  all  reflection  on 
politics  and  morals  presented  itself  under  a  theological 
form.  The  Quaker  doctrine  is  philosophy,  summoned 
from  the  cloister,  the  college,  and  the  saloon,  and 
planted  among  the  most  despised  of  the  people. 

As  poetry  is  older  than  critics,  so  philosophy  is  older 
than  metaphysicians.     The  mysterious  question  of  the 
purpose  of  our  being  is  always  before  us  and  within 
us ;  and  the  little  child,  as  it  begins  to  prattle,  makes 
inquiries  which    the    pride  of  learning  cannot  solve. 
The  method  of  the  solution  adopted  by  the  Quakers, 
was  the  natural  consequence  of  the  origin  of  their  sect. 
The  mind  of  George  Fox  had  the  highest  systematic 
sagacity;  and  his  doctrine,   developed   and   rendered 
illustrious  by  Barclay  and  Penn,  was  distinguished  by 
its  simplicity  and  unity.     The   Quaker  has  but  one 
word,  THE  INNER  LIGHT,  the  voice  of  God  in  the  soul,  Prop!9*! 
That  light  is  a  reality,  and  therefore  in  its  freedom  the    'w.  * 
highest  revelation  of  truth  ;  it  is  kindred  with  the  Spirit  7-9,  n 
of  God,  and  therefore  merits  dominion  as  the  guide  to 
virtue ;  it  shines  in  every  man's  breast,  and  therefore  5,  e,  n 
joins  the  whole  human  race  in  the  unity  of  equal  rights. 
Intellectual  freedom,  the  supremacy  of  mind,  universal 
enfranchisement, — these  three  points  include  the  whole 
of  Quakerism,  as  far  as  it  belongs  to  civil  history. 

Quakerism  rests  on  the  reality  of  the  Inner  Light. 
VOL.  n.  43 


338  THE  REALITY  OF  THE  INNER  LIGHT. 

CHAP,  and  its  method  of  inquiry   is  absolute  freedom  applied 

-\     »     1  .  rv\ 

to  consciousness.  The  revelation  of  truth  is  imme- 
diate. It  springs  neither  from  tradition  nor  from  the 
senses,  but  directly  from  the  mind.  No  man  comes  to 
the  knowledge  of  God  but  by  the  Spirit.  "  Each  per- 
son," says  Penn,  "  knows  God  from  an  infallible 

Pf2£»' L  demonstration  in  himself,  and  not  on  the  slender 
grounds  of  men's  lo  here  interpretations,  or  lo  there  " — 
"  The  instinct  of  a  Deity  is  so  natural  to  man,  that  he 
can  no  more  be  without  it,  and  be,  than  he  can  be 

u.140.  without  the  most  essential  part  of  himself."  As  the 
eye  opens,  light  enters ;  and  the  mind,  as  it  looks  in 
upon  itself,  receives  moral  truth  by  intuition.  Others 
have  sought  wisdom  by  consulting  the  outward  world, 
and,  confounding  consciousness  with  reflection,  have 
trusted  solely  to  the  senses  for  the  materials  of  thought ; 
the  Quaker,  placing  no  dependence  on  the  world  of  the 
senses,  calls  the  soul  home  from  its  wanderings  through 
the  mazes  of  tradition  and  the  wonders  of  the  visible 
universe,  bidding  the  vagrant  sit  down  by  its  own  fires 
to  read  the  divine  inscription  on  the  heart.  "  Some 
seek  truth  in  books,  some  in  learned  men,  but  what 
they  seek  for  is  in  themselves." — "  Man  is  an  epitome 
.L  of  the  world,  and  to  be  learned  in  it,  we  have  only  to 
read  ourselves  well." 

Thus  the  method  of  the  Quaker  coincided  with  that 
of  Descartes  and  his  disciples,  who  founded  their 
system  on  consciousness,  and  made  the  human  mind 
the  point  of  departure  in  philosophy.  But  Des- 
cartes plunged  immediately  into  the  confusion  of 
hypothesis,  drifting  to  sea  to  be  wrecked  among  the 
barren  waves  of  ontological  speculation ;  and  even 
Leibnitz,  confident  in  his  genius  and  learning,  lost  his 
way  among  the  monads  of  creation  and  the  preestab 


FREEDOM  THE  PREROGATIVE  OF  THE  INNER  LIGHT.     339 

lished  harmonies  in  this  best  of  all  possible  worlds  ;  the  CHAP. 
illiterate  Quaker  adhered  strictly  to  his  method  ;  like  —  ~- 
the  timid  navigators  of  old  time,  who  carefully  kept 
near  the  shore,  he  never  ventured  to  sea  except  with 
the   certain   guidance  of   the  cynosure  in  the   heart.  Penn)1 


He  was  consistent,  for  he   set  no  value  on  learning 

.  Barclay 

acquired  in  any  other  way.     Tradition  cannot  enjoin  a     ^ 
ceremony,  still  less  establish  a  doctrine  ;  historical  faith 
is  as  the  old  heavens  that  are  to  be  wrapped  up  as  a 
scroll. 

The  constant  standard  of  truth  and  goodness,  says 
William  Penn,  is  God  in  the  conscience,  and  liberty  of 
conscience  is  therefore  the  most  sacred  right,  and  the  Penn^. 
only  avenue  to  religion.  To  restrain  it  is  an  invasion  of 
the  divine  prerogative.  It  robs  man  of  the  use  of  the  140>1* 
instinct  of  a  Deity.  To  take  away  the  great  charter  of  13°.  131 
freedom  of  conscience  is  to  prevent  the  progress  of 
society  ;  or  rather,  as  the  beneficent  course  of  Provi- 
dence cannot  be  checked,  it  is  in  men  of  the  present  gen- 
eration but  knotting  a  whipcord  to  lash  their  own  pos- 
terity. The  selfishness  of  bigotry  is  the  same  in  every 
age  ;  the  persecutors  of  to-day  do  not  differ  from  those 
who  inflamed  the  people  of  Athens  to  demand  the  death 
of  Socrates  ;  and  the  Quaker  champions  of  freedom  of 
mind  would  never  shrink  from  its  exercise,  through 
fear  of  prisons  or  martyrdom. 

But  the  Quaker  asked  for  conscience  more  than 
security  against  penal  legislation.  He  proclaimed  an 
insurrection  against  every  form  of  authority  over  con- 
science ;  he  resisted  every  attempt  at  the  slavish  sub- 
jection of  the  understanding.  He  had  no  reverence  for 
the  decrees  of  a  university,  a  convocation,  or  a  synod  ; 
no  fear  of  maledictions  from  the  Vatican.  Nor  was 
this  all.  The  Quaker  denied  the  value  of  all  learning, 


340        THE  RUSTIC  QUAKER  REBUKES  THE  RABBIS. 

CHAP,  except  that  which  the  mind  appropriates  by  its  own 
~^~~  intelligence.  The  lessons  of  tradition  were  no  better 
!»,rc:S'  than  the  prating  of  a  parrot,  and  letter  learning  may 
be  hurtful  as  well  as  helpful.  When  the  mind  is  not 
free,  the  devil  can  accompany  the  zealot  to  his  prayers 
and  the  doctor  to  his  study.  The  soul  is  a  living  foun- 
tain of  immortal  truth  ;  but  a  college  is  in  itself  no 
better  than  a  cistern,  in  which  water  may  stagnate, 
and  truth  to  him  who  is  learned  and  not  wise,  who 
knows  words  and  not  things,  is  of  no  more  worth  than 
a  beautiful  piece  of  sculpture  to  a  Vandal.  Let  then 
the  pedant  plume  himself  in  the  belief,  that  erudition 
is  wisdom  ;  the  waters  of  life,  welling  up  from  the 
soul,  gush  forth  in  spontaneous  freedom  ;  and  the  illite- 
rate  mechanic  need  not  fear  to  rebuke  the  proudest 
rabbis  of  the  university. 

The  Quaker  equally  claimed  the  emancipation  of 
conscience  from  the  terrors  of  superstition.  He  did 
not  waken  devotion  by  appeals  to  fear.  He  could 
not  grow  pale  from  dread  of  apparitions,  or,  like  Grotius, 
establish  his  faith  by  the  testimony  of  ghosts  ;  and  in 
an  age  when  the  English  courts  punished  witchcraft 
with  death,  he  rejected  the  delusion  as  having  no 
warrant  in  the  free  experience  of  the  soul.  To  him 
no  spirit  was  created  evil  ;  the  world  began  with  inno- 

Fra.180. 

"*•  cency  ;  and  as  God  blessed  the  works  of  his  hands, 
their  natures  and  harmony  magnified  their  Creator. 
God  made  no  devil  ;  for  all  that  he  made  was  good, 
without  a  jar  in  the  whole  frame.  Discord  proceeds 
from  a  perversion  of  powers,  whose  purpose  was  be- 
nevolent; and  the  spirit  becomes  evil  only  by  a  de- 
parture from  truth. 

FeBB,  The  Quaker  was  equally  warned  against  the  delu- 
sions of  self-love.  His  enemies,  in  derision,  sneered  at 


QUAKERISM   A  MOST  RATIONAL   SYSTEM.  341 

his  idol  as  a  delirious  will-in-the-wisp,  that  claimed  a  CHAP. 

XVL 

heavenly  descent  for  the  offspring  of  earthly  passions ;  ~~v-~ 
and  Fox,  and  Barclay,  and  Penn,  earnestly  denounced  Ba^y 
"  the  idolatry  which  hugs  its  own  conceptions,"  mis- 
taking the  whimseys  of  a  feverish  brain  for  the  calm 
revelations  of  truth.     But  "  How  shall  I  know,"  asks  p*^.'a 
Penn,  "  that  a  man  does  not  obtrude  his  own  sense 
upon  us  as  the  infallible  Spirit  ? "     And  he  answers, 
"  By   the    same    Spirit."      The  Spirit  witnesseth    to  Buei«r, 
our  spirit.     The  Quaker  repudiates  the  errors  which 
the  bigotry  of  sects,  or  the  zeal  of  selfishness,  or  the 
delusion   of  the  senses,  has   engrafted    upon  the   un- 
changing principles  of  morals ;  and  accepting  intelli- 
gence wherever  it  exists,  from  the  collision  of  parties 
and  the  strife  in   the  world  of  opinions,  he  gathers 
together  the  universal  truths  which  of  necessity  con- 
stitute   the  common  creed  of  mankind.     There  is  a 
natural    sagacity  of  sympathy,  which  separates  what 
belongs  to  the  individual  from  that  which  commends 
itself  to   universal    reason.     Quakerism  "is   a  most 
rational    system."      Judgment    is    to    be     made  not   B*S*», 
from  the  rash  and  partial  mind,  but  from   the  eternal 
light  that  never  errs.      The  divine  revelation  is  univer- 
sal, and  compels  assent.     The  jarring  reasonings  of 
individuals  have  filled  the  world  with  controversies  and  penn.u 

24. 

debates  ;  the  true  light  pleads  its  excellency  in  every  Ba™lay 
breast.     Neither  may  the  divine   revelation   be   con-  Pe^; l 
founded  with  individual  conscience  ;  for  the  conscience 
of  the    individual    follows  judgment,    and    may    be 
warped  by  self-love    and   debauched    by  lust.      The 
Turk  has  no  remorse  for  sensual  indulgence,   for  he 
has  defiled  his  judgment  with  a  false  opinion      The 
Papist,  if  he  eat  flesh  in  Lent,  is  reproved  by  the  inward 
monitor,  for  that  monitor  is  blinded   by  a  false  belief. 


342  THE  INNER  LIGHT  INTERPRETS  THE  SCRIPTURES. 

CHAP.  The    true  light    is    therefore  not  the  reason  of   the 

— v~  individual,  nor  the  conscience  of  the  individual ;  it  is 

the  light  of  universal  reason ;  the  voice  of  universal 

conscience,  "  manifesting  its  own  verity,  in  that  it  is 

confirmed  and  established   by   the    experience  of  all 

men."     Moreover  it  has  the  characteristic  of  necessity. 

Ba/ciay,  "  It  constrains  even  its  adversaries  to  plead  for  it." 

W8. 

»  m  "  It  never  contradicts  sound  reason,"  and  is  the  noblest 
and  most  certain  rule,  for  "  the  divine  revelation  is  so 
evident  and  clear  of  itself,  that  by  its  own  evidence 
and  clearness,  it  irresistibly  forces  the  well-disposed 

prop.  ii.  understanding  to  assent." 

But  would  the  Inner  Light  bend  to  the  authority  of 
written  inspiration  ?  The  Bible  was  the  religion  of 
Protestants ;  had  the  Quaker  a  better  guide  ?  The 
Quaker  believed  in  the  unity  of  truth ;  there  can  be 
no  contradiction  between  right  reason  and  previous 
revelation,  between  just  tradition  and  an  enlightened 
conscience.  But  the  Spirit  is  the  criterion.  The 

Barclay,  Spirit  is  the  guide  which  leads  into  all  truth.  The 
Quaker  reads  the  Scriptures  with  delight,  but  not  with 
idolatry.  It  is  his  own  soul  which  bears  the  valid 

P*32e!  *'  witness  that  they  are  true.  The  letter  is  not  the 
Spirit ;  the  Bible  is  not  religion,  but  a  record  of  re- 
ligion. "  The  Scriptures  " — such  are  Barclay's  words 
— "  are  a  declaration  of  the  fountain,  and  not  the 
fountain  itself." 

Far  from  rejecting  Christianity,  the  Quaker  insist- 
ed that  he  alone  maintained  its  primitive  simplicity. 
The  skeptic  forever  vibrated  between  opinions ;  the 
Quaker  was  fixed  even  to  dogmatism.  The  infidel 
rejected  religion  ;  the  Quaker  cherished  it  as  his  life. 
The  scoffer  pushed  freedom  to  dissoluteness ;  the 
Quaker  circumscribed  freedom  bv  obedience  to  truth. 


QUAKERISM  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIANITY.  343 

George  Fox  and  Voltaire  both  protested  against  priest-  CHAP. 
craft ;  Voltaire  in  behalf  of  the  senses,  Fox  in  behalf  — *^ 
of  the  soul.  To  the  Quakers  Christianity  is  freedom. 
And  they  loved  to  remember,  that  the  patriarchs  were 
graziers,  that  the  prophets  were  mechanics  and  shep- 
herds, that  John  Baptist,  the  greatest  of  envoys,  was 
clad  in  a  rough  garment  of  camel's  hair.  To  them 
there  was  joy  in  the  thought,  that  the  brightest  image 
of  divinity  on  earth  had  been  born  in  a  manger,  had 
been  reared  under  the  roof  of  a  carpenter,  had  been 
content  for  himself  and  his  guests  with  no  greater  lux- 
ury than  barley  loaves  and  fishes,  and  that  the  messen- 
gers of  his  choice  had  been  rustics  like  themselves.  Noi 
were  they  embarrassed  by  knotty  points  of  theology. 
Their  creed  did  not  vary  with  the  subtilties  of  verbal 
criticism ;  they  revered  the  eternity  of  the  Inner  Light 
without  regard  to  the  arguments  of  grammarians  or  the 
use  of  the  Greek  article.  Did  philosophers  and  divines 
involve  themselves  in  the  mazes  of  liberty  and  fixed 
decrees,  of  foreknowledge  and  fate,  the  monitor  in  the 
Quaker's  breast  was  to  him  the  sufficient  guaranty  of 
freedom.  Did  men  defend  or  reject  the  Trinity  by 
learned  dissertations  and  minute  criticisms  on  various 
readings,  he  avoided  the  use  of  the  word,  and  despised 
the  jargon  of  disputants;  but  the  idea  of  God  with  us, 
the  incarnation  of  the  Spirit,  the  union  of  Deity  with 
humanity,  was  to  the  Quaker  the  dearest  and  the 
most  sublime  symbol  of  man's  enfranchisement. 

As  a  consequence  of  this  faith,  every  avenue  to  truth 
was  to  be  kept  open.     "  Christ  came  not  to  extinguish,  *«K 
but  to  improve  the  heathen  knowledge."     "  The  dif- 
ference between  the  philosophers  of  Greece  and  the 
Christian   Quaker  is  rather  in  manifestation  than  in  »«  i 

397 

nature."      He   cries    Stand,    to   every   thought    that 


344  QUAKERISM  AGREES   WITH  PLATO  AND  PLOTINUS. 

CHAP,  knocks  for  entrance  ;  but  welcomes  it  as  a  friend,  if  it 

A.  V 1. 

— — -'  gives  the  watchword.  Exulting  in  the  wonderful  bond 
P<3s&  L  which  admitted  him  to  a  communion  with  all  the  sons 
of  light,  of  every  nation  and  age,  he  rejected  with  scorn 
the  school  of  Epicurus ;  he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  fol- 
Dwf'iu.  lies  of  the  skeptics,  and  esteemed  even  the  mind  of  Aris- 
totle too  much  bent  upon  the  outward  world.  But  Aris- 
totle himself,  in  so  far  as  he  grounds  philosophy  on  virtue 
and  self-denial,  and  every  contemplative  sage,  orators 
and  philosophers,  statesmen  and  divines,  were  gathered 
as  a  cloud  of  witnesses  to  the  same  unchanging  truth. 
"  The  Inner  Light,"  said  Penn,  "is  the  Domestic  God 
of  Pythagoras."  The  voice  in  the  breast  of  George 
Fox,  as  he  kept  sheep  on  the  hills  of  Nottingham,  was 
the  spirit  which  had  been  the  good  genius  and  guide 
of  Socrates.  Above  all,  the  Christian  Quaker  delighted 
in  "the  divinely  contemplative  Plato,"  the  "famous 
doctor  of  gentile  theology,"  and  recognized  the  unity 
of  the  Inner  Light  with  the  divine  principle  which 
eV"  dwelt  with  Plotinus.  Quakerism  is  as  old  as  hu- 
manity. 

The  Inner  Light  is  to  the  Quaker  not  only  the  reve- 
lation of  truth,  but  the  guide  of  life  and  the  oracle  of 
duty.  He  demands  the  uniform  predominance  of 
the  world  of  thought  over  the  world  of  sensation. 
The  blameless  enthusiast,  well  aware  of  the  narrow 
powers  and  natural  infirmities  of  man,  yet  aims  at 
a,  M.  perfection  from  sin  ;  and  tolerating  no  compromise, 
demands  the  harmonious  development  of  man's  higher 
powers  with  the  entire  subjection  of  the  base  to  the 
nobler  instincts.  The  motives  to  conduct  and  its  rule 
are,  like  truth,  to  be  sought  in  the  soul. 

Thus  the  doctrine  of  disinterested  virtue — the  doc- 
trine  for  which  Guyon  was  persecuted  and   Fenelon 


THE   INNER  LIGHT  THE  RULE   OF  CONDUCT'.  346 

disgraced — the    doctrine   which   tyrants   condemn  as  CHAP 

XVI. 

rebellion,  and  priests  as  heresy,  was  cherished  by  the  ~^^- 
Quaker  as  the  foundation  of  morality.     Self-denial  he 
enforced  with  ascetic  severity,  yet  never  with  ascetic 
superstition.     He  might  array  himself  fantastically  to 
express  a  truth  by  an  apparent  symbol,  but  he  never 
wore  sackcloth  as  an  anchorite.     "  Thoughts  of  death 
and  hell  to  keep  out  sin  were  to  him  no  better  than  fig-  "aSP' 
leaves."     He  would  obey  the  imperative  dictate  of 
truth,  even  though  the    fires  of  hell  were  quenched. 
Virtue  is  happiness  ;  heaven  is  with  her  always. 

The  Quakers  knew  no  superstitious  vows  of  celibacy ; 
they  favored  no  nunneries,  monasteries,  "or  religious 
bedlams ; "  but  they  demanded  purity  of  life  as  essential 
to  the  welfare  of  society,  and  founded  the  institution  of 
marriage  on  permanent  affection,  not  on  transient  pas- 
sion. Their  matches,  they  were  wont  to  say,  are  regis- 
tered in  heaven.  Has  a  recent  school  of  philosophy 
discovered  in  wars  and  pestilence,  in  vices  and  poverty, 
salutary  checks  on  population  ?  The  Quaker,  confident 
of  the  supremacy  of  mind,  feared  no  evil,  though 
plagues  and  war  should  cease,  and  vice  and  poverty  be 
banished  by  intelligent  culture.  Despotism  favors  the 
liberty  of  the  senses  ;  and  popular  freedom  rests  on 
sanctity  of  morals.  To  the  Quaker,  licentiousness  is 
the  greatest  bane  of  good  order  and  good  government. 

The  Quaker  revered  principles,  not  men,  truth,  not 
power,  and  therefore  could  not  become  the  tool  of  ambi- 
tion.    "  They  are  a  people,"  said  Cromwell,  "  whom  I  FOX,I» 
•cannot  win  with  gifts,  honors,  offices,  or  places."     Still 
less  was  the  Quaker  a  slave  to  avarice.     Seeking  wis- 
dom, and  not  the  philosopher's  stone,  to  him  the  love  p«nn,  • 
of  money  for  money's  sake  was  the  basest  of  passions,   L  ^ 
and  the  rage  of  indefinite  accumulation  was  "oppression 
VOL.  ii.  44 


THE  INNER  LIGHT  THE  RULE  OF  CONDUCT. 

CHAP  to  the  poor,  compelling  those  who  have  little  to  drudge 

-"v^*  like  slaves."     "  That  the  sweat  and  tedious  labor  of  the 

Pe446'  *  husbandmen,  early  and  late,  cold  and  hot,  wet  and  dry, 
should  be  converted  into  the  pleasure,  ease  and  pastime 
of  a  small  number  of  men,  that  the  cart,  the  plough, 
the  thresh,  should  be  in  inordinate  severity  laid  upon 
nineteen  parts  of  the  land  to  feed  the  appetites  of  the 

ibidM    twentieth,  is  far  from  the  appointment  of  the  great 
Governor  of  the  world."    It  is  best,  the  people  be  neither 
526  '  rich  nor  poor ;    for  riches  bring   luxury,  and   luxury 
582     tyranny. 

The  supremacy  of  mind,  forbidding  the  exercise  of 
tyranny  as  a  means  of  government,  attempted  a  reforma- 
tion of  society,  but  only  by  means  addressed  to  con- 
science. The  system  contained  a  reform  in  education , 
it  demanded  that  children  should  be  brought  up,  not  in 
the  pride  of  caste  ;  still  less  by  methods  of  violence  ; 
but  as  men,  by  methods  suited  to  the  intelligence  of 
humanity.  Life  should  never  be  taken  for  an  offence 

p«nn,u.  against  property ;  nor  the  person  imprisoned  for  debt. 
And  the  same  train  of  reasoning  led  to  a  protest  against 
war.  The  Quaker  believed  in  the  power  of  justice  to 
protect  itself ;  for  himself,  he  renounced  the  use  of  the 
sword  ;  and,  aware  that  the  vices  of  society  might 
entail  danger  on  a  nation  not  imbued  with  his  princi- 
ples, he  did  not  absolutely  deny  to  others  the  right  of 
defence,  but  looked  forward  with  hope  to  the  period 

Barclay,  when  the  progress  of  civilization  should  realize  the 
vision  of  a  universal  and  enduring  peace. 

The  supremacy  of  mind  abrogated  ceremonies ;  the 

Pwf  w  Quaker  regarded  "  the  substance  of  things,"  and  broke 
up  forms  as  the  nests  of  superstition.  Every  Protestant 
refused  the  rosary  and  the  censer ;  the  Quaker  rejects 
common  prayer,  and  his  adoration  of  God  is  the  free 


THE  INNER  LIGHT  THE  RULE  OF  CONDUCT.        347 


language  of  his  soul.  He  remembers  the  sufferings  of 
divine  philanthropy,  but  uses  neither  wafer  nor  cup. 
He  trains  up  his  children  to  fear  God,  but  never  sprin- 
kles them  with  baptismal  water.  He  ceases  from  labor 
on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  for  the  ease  of  creation, 
and  not  from  reverence  for  a  holiday.  The  Quaker  is 
a  pilgrim  on  earth,  and  life  is  but  the  ship  that  bears  p«g,  l 
him  to  the  haven  ;  he  mourns  in  his  mind  for  the  de- 
parture of  friends  by  respecting  their  advice,  taking 
care  of  their  children,  and  loving  those  that  they  loved  ; 
and  this  seems  better  than  outward  emblems  of  sor- 
rowing. His  words  are  always  freighted  with  inno-  FOI,XT 
cence  and  truth  ;  God,  the  searcher  of  hearts,  is  the  Penn.u. 

31* 

witness  to  his  sincerity  ;  but  kissing  a  book  or  lifting 
a  hand  is  a  superstitious  vanity,  and  the  sense  of  duty 

,  ,   ,  .  .  Barclay 

cannot  be  increased  by  an  imprecation.  523 

The  Quaker  distrusts  the  fine  arts  ;  they  are  so 
easily  perverted  to  the  purposes  of  superstition  and  the 
delight  of  the  senses.  Yet,  when  they  are  allied  with 
virtue,  and  express  the  nobler  sentiments,  they  are  very  n>.  aw. 
sweet  and  refreshing.  The  comedy,  where,  of  old, 
Aristophanes  excited  the  Athenians  to  hate  Socrates, 
and  where  the  profligate  gallants  of  the  court  of  Charles 
II.  assembled  to  hear  the  drollery  of  Nell  Gwyn  heap 
ridicule  on  the  Quakers,  was  condemned  without  mer- 
cy. But  the  innocent  diversions  of  society,  the  delights 
of  rural  life,  the  pursuits  of  science,  the  study  of  his- 
tory, would  not  interfere  with  aspirations  after  God.  n».6i* 
For  apparel,  the  Quaker  dresses  scberly,  according  to 
his  condition  and  education  ;  far  from  prescribing  an 
unchanging  fashion,  he  holds  it  "  no  vanity  to  use  what 
the  country  naturally  produces,"  and  reproves  nothing 
but  that  extravagance  which  "  all  sober  men  of  all  ib.  sm 
sorts  readily  grant  to  be  evil." 


THE  INNER  LIGHT  THE  RULE  OF  CONDUCT. 

CHAP.  Like  vanities  of  dress,  the  artifices  of  rhetoric  were 
~^~  despised.  Truth,  it  was  said,  is  beautiful  enough  in 
plain  clothes ;  and  Penn,  who  was  able  to  write  ex- 
ceedingly well,  too  often  forgot  that  style  is  the  gos- 
samer on  which  the  seeds  of  truth  float  through  the 
world.  . 

Careless  of  style,  the  Quakers  employ  for  the  propa- 
gation of  truth  no  weapons  but  those  of  mind.  They 
distributed  tracts ;  but  they  would  not  sustain  their 
doctrine  by  a  hireling  ministry.  "  A  man  thou  hast 
corrupted  to  thy  interests  will  never  be  faithful  to 
FOI^M.  them  ; "  and  an  established  church  seemed  "  a  cage  for 
unclean  birds."  When  a  great  high-priest,  who  was  a 
doctor,  had  finished  preaching  from  the  words  "  Ho 
every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  buy  without  money," 
George  Fox  "  was  moved  of  the  Lord  to  say  to  him, 
1  Come  down,  thou  deceiver !  Dost  thou  bid  people 
come  to  the  waters  of  life  freely,  and  yet  thou  takest 
three  hundred  pounds  a  year  of  them  ? 7  The  Spirit 
n>.ioo.  is  a  free  teacher." 

Still  less  would  the  Quaker  employ  the  methods  of 
persecution.  He  was  a  zealous  Protestant,  but  in  the 
season  of  highest  excitement,  he  pleaded  for  absolute 
liberty  of  worship,  and  sought  to  enfranchise  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  himself.  To  persecute,  he  esteemed  a 
confession  of  a  bad  cause ;  for  the  design  that  is  of 
P^^y  God  has  confidence  in  itself,  and  knows  that  any  other 
<80>fcc  will  vanish.  "Your  cruelties  are  a  confirmation,  that 
truth  is  not  on  your  side,"  was  the  remonstrance  of  a 
woman  of  Aberdeen  to  the  magistrates  who  had  im- 
prisoned her  husband. 

In  like  manner,  the  Quaker  never  employed  force 
to  effect  a  social  revolution  or  reform,  but,  refusing 
obedience  to  wrong,  deprived  tyranny  of  its  instruments 


THE  INNER  LIGHT  THE  RULE  OF  CONDUCT.        349 

The  Quaker's  loyalty,  said  the  earl  of  Arrol  at  Aberdeen,  CHAP. 
is  a  qualified  loyalty  ;  it  smells  of  rebellion  :  to  which  —-*--' 
Alexander  Skein,  brother  to  a  subsequent  governor  of  l^76' 
West  New  Jersey,  calmly   answered,  "  I  understand 
not  loyalty,  that  is  not  qualified  with  the  fear  of  God 
rather  than  of  man."     The  Quaker  never  would  pay   Be**,, 

11    513. 

tithes ;  never  yielded  to  any  human  law  which  trav- 
ersed his  conscience.  He  did  more :  he  resisted 
tyranny  with  all  the  moral  energy  of  enthusiasm,  bear- 
ing witness  against  blind  obedience  not  less  than  ibw.u 
against  will  worship.  Believing  in  the  supremacy  of 
mind  over  matter,  he  sought  no  control  over  the  gov- 
ernment except  by  intelligence ;  and  therefore  he 
needed  to  hold  the  right  of  free  discussion  inviolably 
sacred.  He  never  consented  to  the  slightest  compro- 
mise of  this  freedom.  Wherever  there  was  evil  and 
oppression,  the  Quaker  claimed  the  right  to  be  present 
with  a  remonstrance.  He  delivered  his  opinions  freely 
before  Cromwell  and  Charles  II.,  in  face  of  the  gallows 
in  New  England,  in  the  streets  of  London,  before 
the  English  commons.  The  heaviest  penalties,  that 
bigotry  could  devise,  never  induced  him  to  swerve  a 
hair's  breadth  from  his  purpose  of  speaking  freely  and  Barc.ay 
publicly.  This  was  his  method  of  resisting  tyranny. 
Algernon  Sydney,  who  took  money  from  Louis  XIV., 
like  Brutus,  would  have  plunged  a  dagger  into  the 
breast  of  a  tyrant ;  the  Quaker,  without  a  bribe,  re- 
sisted tyranny  by  appeals  to  the  monitor  in  the  tyrant's 
breast,  and  he  labored  incessantly  to  advance  reform 
by  enlightening  the  public  conscience.  Any  other 
method  of  revolution  he  believed  an  impossibility. 
Government — such  was  his  belief — will  always  be  as 
the  people  are  ;  and  a  people  imbued  with  the  love  of 
liberty,  create  the  irresistible  necessity  of  a  free  gov- 


350        THE  INNER  LIGHT  THE  RULE  OF  CONDUCT. 

CHAP,  ernment.      He  sought  no  revolution,   but  that  which 

-*\  »  1 . 

~^~  followed  as  the  consequence  of  the  public  intelligence. 
Such  revolutions  were  inevitable.  "  Though  men 
consider  it  not,  the  Lord  rules  and  overrules  in  the 

Mis.  kingdoms  of  men."  Any  other  revolution  would  be 
transient.  The  Quakers  submitted  to  the  restora- 
tion of  Charles  II.,  as  the  best  arrangement  for  the 
crisis ;  confident  that  time  and  truth  would  lead  to  a 
happier  issue.  "  The  best  frame,  in  ill  hands,  can  do 
nothing  that  is  great  and  good.  Governments,  like 
clocks,  go  from  the  motion  imparted  to  them ;  they 
depend  on  men,  rather  than  men  on  government.  Let 

prouci.i!  men  be  good,  the  government  cannot  be  bad  ;  if  it  be 
ill,  they  will  cure  it."  Even  with  absolute  power,  an 
Antonine  or  an  Alfred  could  not  make  bricks  without 

Pe536'.u'  straw,  nor  the  sword  do  more  than  substitute  one  tyran- 
ny for  another. 

The  moral  power  of  ideas  is  constantly  effecting 
changes  and  improvement  in  society.  No  Quaker  book 
has  a  trace  of  skepticism  on  man's  capacity  for  progress. 
Such  is  the  force  of  an  honest  profession  of  truth,  the 
humblest  person,  if  single-minded  and  firm,  "  can  shake 

Fox.na.  all  the  country  for  ten  miles  round."     The  integrity 

M7.M8.  Of  the  Inner  Light  is  an  invincible  power.  It  is  a 
power  which  never  changes ;  such  was  the  message  of 
Fox  to  the  pope,  the  kings,  and  nobles  of  all  sorts ;  it 
fathoms  the  world,  and  throws  down  that  which  is  con- 
trary  to  it.  It  quenches  fire  ;  it  daunts  wild  beasts  ; 
it  turns  aside  the  edge  of  the  sword  ;  it  outfaces  in- 
struments of  cruelty  ;  it  converts  executioners.  It  was 
remembered  with  exultation,  that  the  enfranchisements 
of  Christianity  were  the  result  of  faith,  and  not  of  the 
sword  ;  and  that  truth  in  its  simplicity,  radiating  from 
the  foot  of  the  cross,  has  filled  a  world  of  sensualists 


1-HE   INNER  LIGHT  THE   RULE   OF  CONDUCT. 


351 


witn  astonishment,  overthrown  their  altars,  discredit-  CHAP 

Jv  VI. 

ed   their  oracles,   infused  itself  into  the   soul  of  the  —•*•*- 
multitude,  invaded  the  court,  risen  superior  to  armies, 
and  led  magistrates  and  priests,  statesmen  and  gen- 
erals, in  its  train,  as  the  trophies  of  its  strength  exerted 
in  its  freedom. 

Thus  the  Quaker  was  cheered  by  a  firm  belief  in  the 
progress  of  society.  Even  Aristotle,  so  many  centuries 
ago,  recognized  the  upward  tendency  in  human  affairs; 
a  Jewish  contemporary  of  Barclay  declared  that  progress 
to  be  a  tendency  towards  popular  power ;  George  Fox 
perceived  that  the  Lord's  hand  was  against  kings  ;  and 
one  day,  on  the  hills  of  Yorkshire,  he  had  a  vision,  that 
he  was  but  beginning  the  glorious  work  of  God  in  the 
earth ;  that  his  followers  would  in  time  become  as 
numerous  as  motes  in  the  sunbeams ;  and  that  the 
party  of  humanity  would  gather  the  whole  human  race  n>.  M* 
in  one  sheepfold.  Neither  art,  wisdom,  nor  violence, 
said  Barclay,  conscious  of  the  vitality  of  truth,  shall  Barclay 
quench  the  little  spark  that  hath  appeared.  The 
atheist — such  was  the  common  opinion  of  the  Quakers — 
the  atheist  alone  denies  progress,  and  says  in  his  heart, 
All  things  continue  as  they  were  in  the  beginning.  "• m 

If,  from  the  rules  of  private  morality,   we   turn  to 
political    institutions,  here  also  the    principle  of  the 
Quaker  is  the   Inner  Light.     He  acquiesces  in   any 
established    government   which   shall    build   its   laws  Penn  t 
upon  the   declarations    of  "universal    reason."     But    909 
government  is  a  part  of  his  religion  ;  and  the  religion  FOX,  n. 
that  declares  "  every  man  enlightened  by  the  divine 
light,"  establishes  government  on  universal  and  equal 
enfranchisement. 

"  Not  one  of  mankind,"  says  Penn,  "  is  exempted 
from  this  illumination." — "God   discovers   himself  to 


352  QUAKERISM  AN   ABSOLUTE   DEMOCRACY. 

CHAP,  every  man."     He  is  in  every  breast,  in  the  ignorant 

A.  V  1* 

— ~~  drudge  as  well  as  in  Locke  or  Leibnitz.  Every  moral 
Pe323. ''  truth  exists  in  every  man's  and  woman's  heart,  as  an 
Barcia  incorruptible  seed ;  the  ground  may  be  barren,  but  the 
B95, 299.  sen(j  -§  certainiy  there.  Every  man  is  a  little  sovereign 

Ih     Ifift 

leg. '  to  himself.     Freedom  is  as  old  as  reason  itself,  which 

Pean.iii. 

ib.i  is  given  to  all,  constant  and  eternal,  the  same  to  all 
Bai83ay>  nations.  The  Quaker  is  no  materialist :  truth  and 

Penn.ii  .  . 

55S-    conscience  are  not  in  the  laws  of  countries  ;  they  are 
not  one  thing  at  Rome,  and  another  at  Athens  ;  they 

^ss?7'  cannot  be  abrogated  by  senate  or  people.  Freedom 
and  the  right  of  property  were  in  the  world  before 

Pe22i. L  Protestantism  ;  they  came  not  with  Luther ;  they  do 

"394"'  not  vanish  with  Calvin ;  they  are  the  common  privi- 

ib.i.sai.  lege  of  mankind. 

The  Bible  enfranchises  those  only  to  whom  it  is 
carried ;  Christianity,  those  only  to  whom  it  is  made 
known;  the  creed  of  a  sect,  those  only  within  its  narrow 
pale.  The  Quaker,  resting  his  system  on  the  Inner 
Light,  redeems  the  race.  Of  those  who  believe  in  the 
necessity  of  faith  in  an  outward  religion,  some  have 
cherished  the  mild  superstition,  that,  in  the  hour  of  dis- 

l*7Ur>  solution,  an  angel  is  sent  from  heaven  "  to  manifest  the 
doctrine  of  Christ's  passion  ; "  the  Quaker  believes  that 
the  heavenly  messenger  is  always  present  in  the  breast 
of  every  man,  ready  to  counsel  the  willing  listener. 

Man  is  equal  to  his  fellow-man.  No  class  can,  "  by 
long  apprenticeship"  or  a  prelate's  breath,  by  wearing 

no,  an*  black  or  shaving  the  crown,  obtain  a  monopoly  of  moral 
truth.  There  is  no  distinction  of  clergy  and  laity. 

The  Inner  Light  sheds  its  blessings  on  the  whole  hu- 
man race  ;  it  knows  no  distinction  of  sex.  1 1  redeems 
woman  by  the  dignity  of  her  moral  nature,  and  claims 
for  her  the  equal  culture  and  free  exercise  of  her 


QUAKERISM   AN  ABSOLUTE   DEMOCRACY.  353 

endowments.  As  the  human  race  ascends  the  steep  ac-  CHAP 
elivitj  of  improvement,  the  Quaker  cherishes  woman  -^ — 
as  the  equal  companion  of  the  journey.  Bafci^, 

Men  are  equal.  The  Quaker  knows  no  abiding  312  ' 
distinction  of  king  and  subject.  The  universality  of 
ihe  Inner  Light  "  brings  crowns  to  the  dust,  and  lays 
them  low  and  level  with  the  earth."  "  The  Lord  will 
he  king;  there  will  be  no  crowns  but  to  such  as  obey 
his  will."  With  God  a  thousand  years  are  indeed  as 
one  day  ;  yet  judgment  on  tyrants  will  come  at  last, 
and  may  come  ere  long. 

Every  man  has  God  in  the  conscience ;  the  Quaker 
knows  no  distinction  of  castes.  He  bows  to  God,  and 
not  to  his  fellow-servant.  "  All  men  are  alike  by  cre- 
ation," says  Barclay ;  and  it  is  slavish  fear  which  Barclay 

541* 

reverences  others  as  gods.  "  I  am  a  man,"  says  every  Ib-504- 
Quaker,  and  refuses  homage.  The  most  favored  of 

lb.  505 

his  race,  even  though  endowed  with  the  gifts  and  glo- 
ries of  an  angel,  he  would  regard  but  as  his  fellow- 
servant  and  his  brother.  The  feudal  nobility  still 
nourished  its  pride.  "  Nothing,"  says  Penn,  "  noth-  !<  4M 
ing  of  man's  folly  has  less  show  of  reason  to  palliate  it." 
"  What  a  pother  has  this  noble  blood  made  in  the 
world  ! "  "  But  men  of  blood  have  no  marks  of  honor 
stampt  upon  them  by  nature."  The  Quaker  scorned 
to  take  off  his  hat  to  any  of  them  ;  he  held  himself  the 
peer  of  the  proudest  peer  in  Christendom.  With  the 
Eastern  despotism  of  Diocletian,  Europe  had  learned 
the  hyperboles  of  Eastern  adulation ;  but  "  My  Lord 
Peter  and  My  Lord  Paul  are  not  to  be  found  in  the 
Bible  ;  My  Lord  Solon  or  Lord  Scipio  is  not  to  be 
read  in  Greek  or  Latin  stories."  And  the  Quaker  1.417 
returned  to  the  simplicity  of  Gracchus  and  Demosthe- 
nes, though  "  Thee  and  Thou  proved  a  sore  cut  to  r<« 
VOL.  n.  45 


354  QUAKERISM   AS    WIDE    AS    HUMANITY.. 

Cxvi  Proud  flesh."  This  was  not  done  for  want  of  courtesy 
-~  which  "no  religion  destroys;"  but  he  knew  that  the 
hat  was  the  symbol  of  enfranchisement,  worn  before 
the  king  by  the  peers  of  the  realm,  in  token  of  equal- 
ity ;  and  the  symbol,  as  adopted  by  the  Quaker,  was  a 
constant  proclamation  that  all  men  are  equal. 

Thus  the  doctrine  of  George  Fox  was  not  only  a 
J  plebeian  form  of  philosophy,  but  also  the  prophecy  of 
political  changes.  The  spirit  that  made  to  him  the 
revelation  was  the  invisible  spirit  of  the  age,  rendered 
wise  by  tradition,  and  excited  to  insurrection  by  the 
enthusiasm  of  liberty  and  religion.  Every  where  in 
Europe,  therefore,  the  Quakers  were  exposed  to  per- 
secution. Their  seriousness  was  called  melancholy 
fanaticism ;  their  boldness,  self-will ;  their  frugality, 
covetousness  ;  their  freedom,  infidelity  ;  their  -con- 
science, rebellion.  In  England,  the  general  laws 
against  dissenters,  the  statute  against  Papists,  and 
special  statutes  against  themselves,  put  them  at  the 
mercy  of  every  malignant  informer.  They  were  hated 
by  the  church  and  the  Presbyterians,  by  the  peers  and 
the  king.  The  codes  of  that  day  describe  them  as 
"an  abominable  sect ;"  "their  principles  as  inconsis- 
tent with  any  kind  of  government."  During  the  Long 
Parliament,  in  the  time  of  the  protectorate,  at  the  res- 
toration, in  England,  in  New  England,  in  the  Dutch 
colony  of  New  Netherlands,  every  where,  and  for 
wearisome  years,  they  were  exposed  to  perpetual 
dangers  and  griefs ;  they  were  whipped,  crowded  into 
jails  among  felons,  kept  in  dungeons  foul  and  gloomy 
beyond  imagination,  fined,  exiled,  sold  into  colonial 
bondage.  They  bore  the  brunt  of  the  persecution 
of  the  dissenters.  Imprisoned  in  winter  without  fire, 
"^  '»  they  perished  from  frost.  Some  were  victims  to  the 
barbarous  cruelty  of  the  jailer.  Twice  George  F  •- 


QUAKERS  BUY  WEST  NEW  JERSEY.  355 

narrowly  escaped  death.     The  despised  people  braved  CHAP 
every  danger  to  continue  their  assemblies.     Haled  out  -— v~ 
by  violence,  they  returned.    When  their  meeting-houses  K§£ 
were  torn  down,  they  gathered  openly  on  the  ruins. 
They  could  not  be  dissolved  by  armed  men ;  and  when 
their  opposers  took  shovels  to  throw  rubbish  on  them, 
they  stood  close  together,  "  willing  to  have  been  buried 
alive,  witnessing  for  the  Lord."     They  were  exceeding 
great  sufferers  for  their  profession,  and  in  some  cases    Fo. 

pi-  T?|« 

treated  worse  than  the  worst  of  the  race.     They  were     10 
as  poor  sheep  appointed  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a 
people  killed  all  day  long. 

Is  it  strange  that  they  looked  beyond  the  Atlantic  1674 
for  a  refuge  ?  When  New  Netherlands  was  recovered 
from  the  United  Provinces,  Berkeley  and  Carteret 
entered  again  into  possession  of  their  province.  For 
Berkeley,  already  a  very  old  man,  the  visions  of  colonial 
fortune  had  not  been  realized ;  there  was  nothing  be- 
fore him  but  contests  for  quitrents  with  settlers  resolved 
on  governing  themselves;  and  in  March,  1674,  a  few  1674 
months  after  the  return  of  George  Fox  from  his  pil-  is." 
grimage  to  all, our  colonies  from  Carolina  to  Rhode 
Island,  the  haughty  peer,  for  a  thousand  pounds,  sold 
the  moiety  of  New  Jersey  to  Quakers,  to  John  Fen- 
wick  in  trust  for  Edward  Byllinge  and  his  assigns.  A 
dispute  between  Byllinge  and  Fen  wick  was  allayed  by 
the  benevolent  decision  of  William  Penn  ;  and  in  1675,  1675 
Fen  wick,  with  a  large  company  and  several  families, 
set  sail  in  the  Griffith  for  the  asylum  of  Friends. 
Ascending  the  Delaware,  he  landed  on  a  pleasant,  fertile 
spot,  and  as  the  outward  world  easily  takes  the  hues 
of  men's  minds,  he  called  the  place  Salem,  for  it 
seemed  the  dwelling-place  of  peace. 

Byllinge  was  embarrassed   in   his  fortunes  ;  Gawen 


356  QUAKER  SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

CHAP.  Laurie,  William  Perm,  and  Nicholas  Lucas,  became  his 

— ^-  assigns  as  trustees  for  his  creditors,  and  shares  in  the 
undivided  moiety  of  New  Jersey  were  offered  for  sale. 
As  an  affair  of  property,  it  was  like  our  land  companies 
of  to-day ;  except  that  in  those  days  speculators  bought 
acres  by  the  hundred  thousand.  But  the  Quakers 
wished  more ;  they  desired  to  possess  a  territory  where 
they  could  institute  a  government ;  and  Carteret  readily 
agreed  to  a  division,  for  his  partners  left  him  the  best 

*AuG  of  the  bargain.  And  now  that  the  men  who  had  gone 
26.  about  to  turn  the  world  upside  down,  were  possessed 
of  a  province,  what  system  of  politics  would  they 
adopt?  The  light,  that  lighteth  every  man,  shone 
brightly  in  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth,  the  Calvinists  of 
Hooker  and  Haynes,  and  in  the  freemen  of  Virginia, 
when  the  transient  abolition  of  monarchy  compelled 
even  royalists  to  look  from  the  throne  to  a  surer 
guide  in  the  heart ;  the  Quakers,  following  the  same 
exalted  instincts,  could  but  renew  the  fundamental 
legislation  of  the  men  of  the  Mayflower,  of  Hartford, 
and  of  the  Old  Dominion.  "  The  CONCESSIONS  are 
such  as  Friends  approve  of;"  this  is  •the  message  of 
the  Quaker  proprietaries  in  England  to  the  few  who 
had  emigrated :  "  We  lay  a  foundation  for  after  ages 
to  understand  their  liberty  as  Christians  and  as  men, 
that  they  may  not  be  brought  into  bondage,  but  by 
their  own  consent ;  for  we  put  THE  POWER  IN  THE 

1677.  PEOPLE."  And  on  the  third  day  of  March,  1677,  the 
a*  charter,  or  fundamental  laws,  of  West  New  Jersey 
were  perfected  and  published.  They  are  written  with 
almost  as  much  method  as  our  present  constitutions, 
and  recognize  the  principle  of  democratic  equality  as 
unconditionally  and  universally  as  the  Quaker  society 
itself. 


QUAKER  TREATY  WITH  NEW   JERSEY   INDIANS.  357 

No  man,  nor  number  of  men,  hath  power  over  con-  CHAP. 

XVI. 

science.     No  person  shall  at  any  time,  in  any  ways,  or  ^v^L 


on  any  pretence,  be  called  in  question,  or  in  the  least 
punished  or  hurt  for  opinion  in  religion.  —  The  general  528-5ai 
assembly  shall  be  chosen,  not  by  the  confused  way  of 
cries  and  voices,  but  by  the  balloting  box.  —  Every  man 
is  capable  to  choose  or  be  chosen.  —  The  electors  shall 
give  their  respective  deputies  instructions  at  large, 
which  these,  in  their  turn,  by  indentures  under  hand  and 
seal,  shall  bind  themselves  to  obey.  The  disobedient 
deputy  may  be  questioned  before  the  assembly  by  any 
one  of  his  electors.  Each  member  is  to  be  allowed 
one  shilling  a  day,  to  be  paid  by  his  immediate  con- 
stituents, "  that  he  may  be  known  as  the  servant  of 
the  people."  —  The  executive  power  rested  with  ten 
commissioners,  to  be  appointed  by  the  assembly  ;  jus- 
tices and  constables  were  chosen  directly  by  the 
people  ;  the  judges,  appointed  by  the  general  assembly, 
retained  office  but  two  years  at  the  most,  and  sat  in 
the  courts  but  as  assistants  to  the  jury.  In  the  twelve 
men,  and  in  them  only,  judgment  resides  ;  in  them 
and  in  the  general  assembly  rests  discretion  as  to  pun- 
ishments. "  All  and  every  person  in  the  province, 
shall,  by  the  help  of  the  Lord  and  these  fundamentals, 
be  free  from  oppression  and  slavery."  No  man  can  be 
imprisoned  for  debt.  Courts  were  to  be  managed 
without  the  necessity  of  an  attorney  or  counsellor. 
The  native  was  protected  against  encroachments  ;  the 
helpless  orphan  educated  by  the  state. 

Immediately  the  English  Quakers,  with  the  good 
wishes  of  Charles  II.,  flocked  to  West  New  Jersey,  and 
commissioners,  possessing  a  temporary  authority,  were 
sent  to  administer  affairs,  till  a  popular  government 
could  be  instituted.  When  the  vessel,  freighted  with 


358     QUAKER  CONTROVERSY  WITH  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK. 

CHAP,  the   men  of  peace,  arrived   in  America,   Andros,    the 
—v^~  governor  of  New  York,  claimed  jurisdiction  over  their 

1677.  territory.     The  claim,  which,  on  the  feudal  system,  was 
perhaps   a  just   one,   was  compromised  as  a   present 
question,  and  referred  for  decision  to  England.    Mean- 
time lands  were  purchased  of  the  Indians  ;  the  planters 
numbered  nearly  four  hundred  souls ;   and  already  at 
Burlington,  under  a  tent  covered  with  sail-cloth,  the 
Quakers  began  to  hold  religious  meetings.1     The  Indian 
kings  also  gathered  in  council  under  the  shades  of  the 

1678.  Burlington  forests,  and  declared  their  joy  at  the  pros- 
pect of  permanent  peace.     "  You   are  our  brothers," 
said  the  sachems,  "  and  we  will  live  like  brothers  with 
you.     We  will  have  a  broad  path  for  you  and   us  to 
walk  in.     If  an  Englishman  falls  asleep  in  this  path, 
the  Indian  shall  pass  him  by,  and  say,  He  is  an  Eng- 
lishman ;    he   is   asleep ;    let  him   alone.     The    path 
shall   be  plain ;  there  shall  not  be  in  it  a  stump  to 
hurt  the  feet."2 

Every  thing  augured  success  to  the  colony,  but  that, 
at  Newcastle,  the  agent  of  the  duke  of  York,  who  still 
possessed  Delaware,  exacted  customs  of  the  ships 
ascending  to  New  Jersey.  It  may  have  been  honesdy 
believed,  that  his  jurisdiction  included  the  whole  river; 
when  urgent  remonstrances  were  made,  the  duke  free- 
ly referred  the  question  to  a  disinterested  commission. 

The  argument  of  the  Quakers  breathes  the  spirit  of 
Anglo-Saxons. 

16/8       "An  express  grant  of  the  powers  of  government 
680.  induced  us  to  buy  the  moiety  of  New  Jersey.     If  we 
could  not  assure  people  of  an  easy,  free,  and  safe  gov- 
ernment, liberty  of  conscience,  and  an  inviolable  pos- 

i  Haz.  Reg.  vi  182.  a  Smith's  New  Jersey,  100. 


QUAKER  CONTROVERSY  WITH  THE  DUKE  OF  YORK.     359 

session  of  their  civil  rights  and  freedoms,  a  mere  wilder-  CHAP 

XVI. 

ness  would  be  no  encouragement.  It  were  madness  to  >— -^ 
leave  a  free  country  to  plant  a  wilderness,  and  give  1678 
another  person  an  absolute  title  to  tax  us  at  will.  1680 

"  The  customs  imposed  by  the  government  of  New 
York  are  not  a  burden  only,  but  a  wrong.  By  what 
right  are  we  thus  used  ?  The  king  of  England  cannot 
take  his  subjects'  goods  without  their  consent.  This 
is  a  home-born  right,  declared  to  be  law  by  divers 
statutes. 

"  To  give  up  the  right  of  making  laws  is  to  change 
the  government  and  resign  ourselves  to  the  will  of 
another.  The  land  belongs  to  the  natives ;  of  the 
duke  we  buy  nothing  but  the  right  of  an  undisturbed 
colonizing,  with  the  expectation  of  some  increase  of 
the  freedoms  enjoyed  in  our  native  country.  We 
have  not  lost  English  liberty  by  leaving  England. 

"  The  tax  is  a  surprise  on  the  planter :  it  is  paying 
for  the  same  thing  twice  over.  Custom,  levied  upon 
planting,  is  unprecedented.  Besides,  there  is  no  end  of 
this  power.  By  this  precedent,  we  are  assessed  without 
law,  and  excluded  from  our  English  right  of  common 
assent  to  taxes.  We  can  call  nothing  our  own,  but 
are  tenants  at  will,  not  for  the  soil  only,  but  for  our 
personal  estates.  Such  conduct  has  destroyed  govern- 
ment, but  never  raised  one  to  true  greatness. 

"  Lastly,  to  exact  such  unterminated  tax  from 
English  planters,  and  to  continue  it  after  so  many 
repeated  complaints,  will  be  the  greatest  evidence 
of  a  design  to  introduce,  if  the  crown  should  ever 
devolve  upon  the  duke,  an  unlimited  government  in 
England." 

Such  was  the  argument  of  the  Quakers ;  and  it  was 
triumphant.  Sir  William  Jones  decided  that,  as  the 


360  PROSPERITY   OF  WEST  NZW  JERSEY. 


grant  from  the  duke  of  York  had  reserved  no  profit  or 
-  -  jurisdiction,  the  tax  was  illegal.     The  duke  of  York 
'P80'  promptly  acquiesced   in  the  decision,  and  in  a  new 
6.     indenture  relinquished  every  claim  to  the  territory  and 
the  government. 

After  such  trials,  vicissitudes,  and  success,  the  light 
of  peace  dawned  upon  West  New  Jersey  ;  and  in  No- 
vember, 1681,  Jennings,  acting  as  governor  for  the 
proprietaries,  convened  the  first  legislative  assembly  of 
the  representatives  of  men  who  said  thee  and  thou  to 
all  the  world,  and  wore  their  hats  in  presence  of  beggar 
or  king.  Their  first  measures  established  their  rights 
by  an  act  of  fundamental  legislation,  and  in  the  spirit 
of  "  the  Concessions,"  they  framed  their  government 
on  the  basis  of  humanity.  Neither  faith,  nor  wealth, 
nor  race,  was  respected.  They  met  in  the  wilderness 
as  men,  and  founded  society  on  equal  rights.  What 
shall  we  relate  of  a  community  thus  organized  ?  That 
they  multiplied,  and  were  happy  ?  that  they  levied  for 
the  expenses  of  their  commonwealth  two  hundred 
pounds,  to  be  paid  in  corn,  or  skins,  or  money  ?  that 
they  voted  the  governor  a  salary  of  twenty  pounds  ? 
that  they  prohibited  the  sale  of  ardent  spirits  to  the 
Indians  ?  that  they  forbade  imprisonment  for  debt  ?  The 
formation  of  this  little  government  of  a  few  hundred 
souls,  that  soon  increased  to  thousands,  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  incidents  in  the  history  of  the  age.  West  New 
Jersey  had  been  a  fit  home  for  Fenelon.  The  people 
rejoiced  under  the  reign  of  God,  confident  that  he 
would  beautify  the  meek  with  salvation.  A  loving 
correspondence  began  with  Friends  in  England  ;  and 
from  the  fathers  of  the  sect,  frequent  messages  were 
1681  received-  "  Friends  that  are  gone  to  make  plantations 
1682.  in  America,  keep  the  plantations  in  your  hearts,  that 


PROSPERITY  OF  WEST  NEW  JERSEY.  361 

your  own  vines  and  lilies  be  not  hurt.     You  that  are  CHAP. 
governors  and  judges,  you  should  be  eyes  to  the  blind,  -^-v~— 
feet  to  the  lame,  and  fathers  to  the  poor  ;  that  you  may  168a 
gain  the  blessing  of  those  who  are  ready  to  perish,  and 
cause  the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for  gladness.     If  you 
rejoice   because  your  hand  hath  gotten  much  ;  if  you 
say  to  fine  gold,  Thou  art  my  confidence, — you  will 
have  denied  the  God  that  is  above.     The  Lord  is  ruler 
among  nations ;  he  will  crown    his   people  with  do- 
minion."1 

In  the  midst  of  this  innocent  tranquillity,  Byllinge, 
the  original  grantee  of  Berkeley,  claimed  as  proprie- 
tary the  right  of  nominating  the  deputy-governor.  The 
usurpation  was  resisted.  Byllinge  grew  importunate; 
and  the  Quakers,  setting  a  new  precedent,  amended 
their  constitutions,  according  to  the  prescribed  method, 
and  then  elected  a  governor.  Every  thing  went  well 
in  West  New  Jersey  ;  this  method  of  reform  was  the 
advice  of  WILLIAM  PENN. 

For  in  the  mean  time  William  Penn  had  become  1089 
deeply  interested  in  the  progress  of  civilization  on  the 
Delaware.  In  company  with  eleven  others,  he  had 
purchased  East  New  Jersey  of  the  heirs  of  Carteret. 
But  of  the  eastern  moiety  of  New  Jersey,  peopled  chiefly 
by  Puritans,  the  history  is  intimately  connected  with 
that  of  New  York.  The  line  that  divides  East  and 
West  New  Jersey,  is  the  line  where  the  influence  of 
the  humane  society  of  Friends  is  merged  in  that  of 
Puritanism. 

It  was  for  the  grant  of  a  territory  on  the  opposite  bank  1 680 
of  the  Delaware,  that  William  Penn,  in  June,  1680,  Juna 
beca'me  a  suitor.2  His  father,  distinguished  in  English 

1  Fox  and  Burnyeat,  in  Hazard's        2  Proceedings  of  the  privy  coun- 
Reg.  vi.  184 — 200.  cil,  in  Votes  and  Proceedings  of  the 

VOL.  ii.  46 


362  PENNSYLVANIA  GRANTED  TO  PENN. 

CHAP,  history  by  the  conquest  of  Jamaica,  and  by  his  con- 
- — ~  duct,  discretion,  and  courage,  in  the  signal  battle  against 
1680.  tne  Dutch  in  1665,  had  bequeathed  to  him  a  claim 
on  the  government  for  sixteen  thousand  pounds.  Mas- 
sachusetts had  bought  Maine  for  a  little  more  than  one 
thousand  pounds ;  then,  and  long  afterwards,  colonial 
property  was  lightly  esteemed ;  and  to  the  prodigal 
Charles  II.,  always  embarrassed  for  money,  the  grant 
of  a  province  seemed  the  easiest  mode  of  cancelling 
the  debt.  William  Penn  had  powerful  friends  in  North, 
Halifax,  and  Sunderland;1  and  a  pledge  given  to  his 
father  on  his  death-bed,  obtained  for  him  the  assured 
favor  of  the  duke  of  York. 

Sustained  by  such  friends,  and  pursuing  his  object 
with  enthusiasm,  William  Penn  triumphed  over  "  the 
great  opposition"2  which  he  encountered,  and  ob- 
tained a  charter  for  the  territory,  which  received  from 
Charles  II.  the  name  of  Pennsylvania,  and  which  was 
to  include  three  degrees  of  latitude  by  five  degrees  of 
longitude  west  from  the  Delaware.  The  duke  of  York 
desired  to  retain  the  three  lower  counties,  that  is,  the 
state  of  Delaware,  as  an  appendage  to  New  York ; 
Pennsylvania  was,  therefore,  in  that  direction,  limited 
by  a  circle  drawn  at  twelve  miles'  distance  from  New- 
castle, northward  and  westward,  unto  the  beginning  of 
the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude.  This  impossible  boun- 
dary received  the  assent  of  the  agents  of  the  duke  of 
York  and  Lord  Baltimore. 

The  charter,  as  originally  drawn  up  by  William 
Penn  himself,  conceded  powers  of  government  analo- 
gous to  those  of  the  charter  for  Maryland.  That  no 

House  of  Representatives  in  Penn-  *  Penn,  in  Memoirs  of  Pennsyl- 

•ylvunia ;  and    in  Haz.  Hist.  Reg.  vania  Historical  Society,  ii.  244. 

i.  2(59,271,273, 274.    More  full  than  2  ibid.  i.  205. 
Chalmers,  635,  655,  &c.    Proud, 


PENN'S  LETTER  TO  THE  PEOPLE.  363 

clause  might  be  at  variance  with  English  law,  it  was  CHAP. 

XVI 

revised  by  the  attorney-general,  and  amended  by  Lord  -~v^. 
North,  who  inserted  clauses  to  guard  the  sovereignty 
of  the  king  and  the  commercial  supremacy  of  parlia- 
ment. The  acts  of  the  future  colonial  legislature  were 
to  be  submitted  to  the  king  and  council,  who  had 
{K)wer  to  annul  them  if  contrary  to  English  law.  The 
power  of  levying  customs  was  expressly  reserved  to 
parliament.  The  bishop  of  London,  quite  unnecessa- 
rily, claimed  security  for  the  English  church.  The 
people  of  the  country  were  to  be  safe  against  taxation, 
except  by  the  provincial  assembly  or  the  English  par- 
liament. In  other  respects  the  usual  franchises  of  a 
feudal  proprietary  were  conceded. 

At  length,  writes  William  Penn,  "After  many  wait- 
ings,  watchings,  solicitings,  and  disputes  in  council, 
my  country  was  confirmed  to  me  under  the  great  seal  of 
England.  God  will  bless  and  make  it  the  seed  of  a 
nation.  I  shall  have  a  tender  care  of  the  government, 
that  it  be  well  laid  at  first." 

Pennsylvania  included  the  principal  settlements  of 
the  Swedes ;  and  patents  for  land  had   been  made  to 
Dutch  and  English  by  the  Dutch  West  India  Compa 
ny,  and  afterwards  by  the  duke  of  York.     The  royal 
proclamation  soon  announced  to  all  the  inhabitants  of    April 

o 

the  province,  that  William  Penn,  their  absolute  propri- 
etary, was  invested  with  all  powers  and  preeminences 
necessary  for  the  government.  The  proprietary  also 
issued  his  proclamation  to  his  vassals  and  subjects.  It 
was  in  the  following  words : — 

"  MY  FRIENDS  :  I  wish  you  all  happiness  here  and 
hereafter.  These  are  to  lett  you  know,  that  it  hath 
pleased  God  in  his  Providence  to  cast  you  within  my 
Lott  and  Care.  It  is  a  business,  that  though  I  never 


364  PENN  OPPOSES   MONOPOLY. 

CHAP,  undertook  before,  yet  God  has  given  me  an  under- 

A.  VI, 

~^~  standing  of  my  duty  and  an  honest  minde  to  doe  it 
1681.  uprightly.  I  hope  you  will  not  be  troubled  at  your 
chainge  and  the  king's  choice  ;  for  you  are  now  fixt, 
at  the  mercy  of  no  Governour  that  comes  to  make  his 
fortune  great.  You  shall  be  governed  by  laws  of  your 
own  makeing,  and  live  a  free,  and  if  you  will,  a  sober 
and  industreous  People.  I  shall  not  usurp  the  right  of 
any,  or  oppress  his  person.  God  has  furnisht  me  with 
a  better  resolution,  and  has  given  me  his  grace  to  keep 
it.  In  short,  whatever  sober  and  free  men  can  reason- 
ably desire  for  the  security  and  improvement  of  their 
own  happiness,  I  shall  heartily  comply  with  —  I  beseech 
God  to  direct  you  in  the  way  of  righteousness,  and 
therein  prosper  you  and  your  children  after  you.  I  am 
your  true  Friend,  WM.  PENN. 

London,  %th  of  the  Month  called  April,  168  1."1 

Such  were  the  pledges  of  the  Quaker  sovereign  on 
assuming  the  government  ;  it  is  the  duty  of  history  to 
state,  that,  during  his  long  reign,  these  pledges  were 
redeemed.  He  never  refused  the  free  men  of  Penn- 
sylvania a  reasonable  desire. 

May.  With  this  letter  to  the  inhabitants,  young  Markham 
immediately2  sailed  as  agent  of  the  proprietary.  He 
was  to  govern  in  harmony  with  law,  and  the  people 
were  requested  to  continue  the  established  system  of 
revenue  till  Penn  himself  could  reach  America.  During 
the  summer,  the  conditions  for  the  sale  of  lands  were 


reciprocally  ratified  by  Penn  and  a  company  of  adven- 
turers. The  enterprise  of  planting  a  province  had 
been  vast  for  a  man  of  large  fortunes  ;  Penn's  whole 

1  Haz.  Reg.  i.  377.  the  Indians,  by  P.  S.  Du  Ponceau 

8  See  the  careful  statement  in    and  J.  Francis  Fisher,  p.  14. 
the  Memoir  on  Perm's  Treaty  with 


THE   INSTITUTION   OF   GOVERNMENT.  365 

estate  had  yielded,  when  unencumbered,  a  revenue  of  CHAP 
fifteen  hundred  pounds ;  but  in  his  zeal  to  rescue  his  ^^- 
suffering  brethren  from  persecution,  he  had,  by  heavy  1681 
expenses  in  courts  of  law  and  at  court,  impaired  his 
resources,  which  he  might  hope  to  retrieve  from  the 
sale  of  domains.  Would  he  sacrifice  his  duty  as  a  man 
to  his  emoluments  as  a  sovereign  ?  In  August,  a  com- 
pany of  traders  offered  six  thousand  pounds  and  an 
annual  revenue  for  a  monopoly  of  the  Indian  traffic 
between  the  Delaware  and  the  Susquehannah.  To  a 
father  of  a  family,  in  straitened  circumstances,  the 
temptation  was  great ;  but  Penn  was  bound,  by  his 
religion,  to  equal  laws,  and  he  rebuked  the  cupidity  of 
monopoly.  "  I  will  not  abuse  the  love  of  God," — such 
was  his  decision, — "  nor  act  unworthy  of  his  Provi- 
dence, by  defiling  what  came  to  me  clean.  No ;  let  the 
Lord  guide  me  by  his  wisdom,  to  honor  his  name  and 
serve  his  truth  and  people,  that  an  example  and  a 
standard  may  be  set  up  to  the  nations ; "  and  he  adds 
to  a  Friend,  "  There  may  be  room  there,  though  not 
here,  for  the  Holy  Experiment."1 

With  a  company  of  emigrants,  full  instructions  were   Sept 
forwarded  respecting  lands  and  planting  a  city.     Penn 
disliked    the    crowded  towns  of   the    old    world ;    he 
desired  the  city  might  be  so  planted  with  gardens  round 
each -house,  as   to  form  "a  greene   country  town."2 

And  almost  at  the  same  time  he  addressed  a  letter  to 

Oct. 
the  native  children  of  the  American  forest,  declaring     ig. 

himself  and  them  responsible  to  one  and  the  same  God, 
having  the  same  law  written  in  their  hearts,  and  alike 
bound  to  love,  and  help,  and  do  good  to  one  another.3 

Meantime,  the  mind  of  Penn  was  deeply  agitated 
by  thoughts  on  the  government  which  he  should  estab- 

i  Mem.  P.  H.  S.  i.  205,  and  Proud,  i.  169. 
a  Ibid.  h.  220.  3  proud,  i.  195,  196. 


866  THE  INSTITUTION  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

CHAP.  lish.     To  him  government  was  a  part  of  religion  itself, 
— ~  an  emanation  of  divine  power,  capable  of  kindness, 

1681.  goodness,  and  charity;  having  an  opportunity  of  be 
nevolent  care  for  men  of  the  highest  attainments,  even 
more  than  the  office  of  correcting  evil-doers  ;  and,  with- 
out  imposing   one  uniform  model  on  all   the  world, 
without  denying  that  time,  place,  and  emergencies  may 
bring  with  them  a  necessity  or  an  excuse  for  monarchi- 
cal, or  even  aristocratical  institutions,  he  believed  "any 
government  to  be  free  to  the  people,  where  the  laws 
rule,  and  the  people  are  a   party  to  the  laws."     That 
Penn  was  superior  to  avarice,  was  clear  from  his  lavish 
expenditures  to  relieve  the  imprisoned  ;  that  he  had 
risen  above  ambition,  appeared  from  his  preference  of 
the  despised  Quakers  to  the  career  of  high  advance- 
ment in  the  court  of  Charles  II.     But  he  loved  to  do 
good ;  and  could  passionate  philanthropy  resign  abso- 
lute power,  apparently  so  favorable  to  the  exercise  of 
vast  benevolence  ?     Here,  and  here  only,  Penn's  spirit 
was  severely  tried ; 1  but  he  resisted  the  temptation. 

1682.  "I  purpose," — such  was  his  prompt  decision — "for  the 
**ay    matters  of  liberty  I  purpose,  that  which  is  extraordina- 
ry— to  leave  myself  and  successors  no  power  of  doeing 
mischief  ;  that  the  will  of  one  man  may  not  hinder  the 
good  of  a  whole  country."2 — "  It  is  the  great  end  of 
government  to  support  power  in    reverence  with  the 
people,  and  to  secure  the  people  from  the  abuse  of 
power  ;  for  liberty  without  obedience  is  confusion,  and 
obedience  without  liberty  is  slavery."     Taking  coun- 
sel, therefore,  from  all  sides,  listening  to  the  theories 
of  Algernon  Sydney,  whose  Roman    pride   was  ever 

1  Penn's  letter  to  Algernon  Syd-  parted  with."    Compare  Markham, 

ney ;  Penn's  letter,  in  Proud,  i.  210.  in  Chalmers. 

*  I  never  felt  judgment  for  thepow-  2  Memoiis,  P.  H.  S.  i.  203,  and 

er  I  kept,  but  trouble  for  what  I  Proud,  i.  199. 


WILLIAM   PENN    SAILS   FOR  THE   DELAWARE.  367 

faithful  to  the  good  old  republican  cause,  and  deriving  CHAP 
still  better  guidance  from  the  suavity  and  humanity  of  —  -v~ 


his  Quaker  brethren,  Penn  published  a  frame  of  gov- 
ernment,  not  as  an  established  constitution,  but  as  a 
system1  to  be  referred  to  the  freemen  in  Pennsylvania 

About  the  same  time,  a  free  society  of  traders  was* 
organized.  "  It  is  a  very  unusual  society,"  —  such  was 
their  advertisement,  —  "  for  it  is  an  absolute  free  one, 
and  in  a  free  country  ;  every  one  may  be  concerned 
that  will,  and  yet  have  the  same  liberty  of  private  traf- 
fique,  as  though  there  were  no  society  at  all."2 

Thus  the  government  and  commercial  prosperity  of 
the  colony  were  founded  in  freedom  ;  to  perfect  his 
territory,  Penn  desired  to  possess  the  bay,  the  river, 
and  the  shore  of  the  Delaware  to  the  ocean.  The 
territories  or  three  lower  counties,  now  forming  the  state 
of  Delaware,  were  in  possession  of  the  duke  of  York, 
and,  from  the  conquest  of  New  Netherlands,  had  been 
esteemed  an  appendage  to  his  province.  His  claim, 
arising  from  conquest  and  possession,  had  the  informal 
assent  of  the  king  and  the  privy  council,  and  had  ex- 
tended even  to  the  upper  Swedish  settlements.  It  was 
not  difficult  to  obtain  from  the  duke  a  release  of  his 

Aug 

claim  on  Pennsylvania  ;  and,  after  much  negotiation,  24 
the  lower  province  was  granted  by  two  deeds  of  feoff- 
ment.3  From  the  forty-third  degree  of  latitude  to  the 
Atlantic,  the  western  and  southern  banks  of  Delaware 
River  and  Bay  were  under  the  dominion  of  William 
Penn. 

Every  arrangement  for  a  voyage  to  his  province 
being  finished,  Penn,  in  a  beautiful  letter,  took  leave 

1  Appendix  to  Proud,  ii.  3  Haz.  Reg.  i.  429,  430.     Clark- 

2  Documents  in  Hazard's  Regis-     son.    Proud,  i.    200  —  202.    Vote* 
ter,  i.  394.  and  Proceedings,  xxxv,  &c.  &o 


368  PREVIOUS  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PENN. 

CHAP,  of  his  family.  His  wife,  who  was  the  love  of  his  youth 
-— v~~  he  reminded  of  his  impoverishment  in  consequence  of 
'682.  his  public  spirit,  and  recommended  economy  ;  "Live 
low  and  sparingly  till  my  debts  be  paid."  Yet  for  his 
children  he  adds,  "  Let  their  learning  be  liberal ;  spare 
no  cost,  for  by  such  parsimony  all  is  lost  that  is  saved  " 
Agriculture  he  proposed  as  their  employment.  "  Let 
my  children  be  husbandmen  and  housewives." — 
Friends  in  England  watched  his  departure  with  anxious 
hope  ;  on  him  rested  the  expectations  of  their  society, 
and  their  farewell  at  parting  was  given  with  "the 
innocence  and  tenderness  of  the  child  that  has  no 
guile." 

After  a  long  passage,  rendered  gloomy  by  frequent 

death    among    the    passengers,  many    of  whom  had 

in  England    been  his    immediate    neighbors,  on    the 

^    twenty-seventh  day1  of  October,  1682,  William  Penn 

landed  at  Newcastle. 

The  son  and  grandson  of  naval  officers,  his  thoughts 
had  from  boyhood  been  directed  to  the  ocean  ;  the  con- 
quest of  Jamaica  by  his  father  early  familiarized  his 
imagination  with  the  New  World,  and  in  Oxford,  at  the 
age  of  seventeen,  he  indulged  in  visions  of  happiness, 
of  which  America  was  the  scene.2  Bred  in  the  school 
of  Independency,  he  had,  while  hardly  twelve  years 
old,  learned  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  God  in  his  soul  ; 
and  at  Oxford,  where  his  excellent  genius  received  the 
benefits  of  learning,  the  words  of  a  Quaker  preacher 
1661  so  touched  his  heart,  that  he  was  fined  and  afterwards 
expelled  for  nonconformity.3  His  father,  bent  on  sub- 

i  Records  in   Watson.     Penn's  ing  surplices.    The  story  is  one  of 

letter  announces  his  arrival  as  on  Oldmixon's.      It    cannot    be   true, 

the  24th.     This  may  refer  to   his  Penn  became  first  acquainted  with 

entering  into  the  bay.  Sunderland,   in    France,   in    1GG3 

3  Penns.  H.  S.  C.  i.  203.  Penn's  letter  to  Sunderland,  Mem. 

a  It  is  usual   to  add  that  Penn  P.  H.  S.  ii.  244. 
joined  with  Robert  Spencer  in  tear- 


PREVIOUS   LIFE  OF   WILLIAM   PENN.  369 

duing  his  enthusiasm,  beat  him  and  turned  him  into  CHAP 

the  streets,  to  choose  between  poverty  with  a  pure  con *~ 

science,  or  fortune  with  obedience.  But  how  could 
the  hot  anger  of  a  petulant  sailor  continue  against  an 
only  son  ?  It  was  in  the  days  of  the  glory  of  Descartes, 
that,  to  complete  his  education,  William  Penn  received 
a  father's  permission  to  visit  the  continent. 

From  the  excitements  and  the  instruction  of  travel, 
for  which  the  passion  is  sometimes  stronger  than  love 
or  ambition,  the  young  exile  turned  aside  to  the  college  1662 
at  Saumur,  where,  under  the  guidance  of  the  gifted  ] 
and  benevolent  Amyrault,  his  mind  was  trained  in  the 
severities  of  Calvinism,  as  tempered  by  the  spirit  of 
universal  love.1 

In  the  next  year,  Penn,  having  crossed  the  Alps,  was 
just  entering  on  the  magnificence  of  Piedmont,  when  1664 
the  appointment  of  his  father  to  the  command  of  a  Brit- 
ish squadron,  in  the  naval  war  with  Holland,  compelled 
his  return  to  the  care  of  the  estates  of  the  family. 
The  discipline  of  society  and  travel  had  given  him 
grace  of  manners,  enhanced  by  the  severe  but  unpre- 
tending purity  of  his  morals  ;  and  in  London  the  trav- 
elled student  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  if  diligent  in  gaining  a  1664 

1  f\  f\  ^ 

knowledge  of  English  law,  was  yet  esteemed  a  most 
modish  fine  gentleman.2  In  France,  the  science  of  the 
Huguenots  had  nourished  reflection ;  in  London,  every 
sentiment  of  sympathy  was  excited  by  the  horrors  which 
he  witnessed  during  the  devastations  of  the  plague.3 

Having   thus  perfected   his   understanding   by  the  1665 
learning  of  Oxford,  the  religion  and  philosophy  of  the 
French  Huguenots  and  France,  and  the  study  of  the 
laws  of  England,  in  the  bloom  of  youth,  being  of  en- 

l  Clarkson,  i.  c.  ii.  and  ii.  c.  xx.   Sewel,  474,  is  the  contemporary  authority. 
2  Pepys,  i.  311.  3  Penn,  ii.  465. 

VOL.  ii.  47 


370  PREVIOUS   LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PENN. 

CHAP,  gaging  manners,  and  so  skilled  in  the  use  of  the  sword, 
-^~  that  he  easily  disarmed  an  antagonist,1  of  great  natural 
vivacity,  and  gay  good  humor,  the  career  of  wealth  and 
preferment  opened  before  him  through  the  influence 
of  his  father  and  the  ready  favor  of  his  sovereign.  But 
his  mind  was  already  imbued  with  "  a  deep  sense  of 
the  vanity  of  the  world,  and  the  irreligiousness  of  its 
religions."2 

1666.  At  length,  in  1666,  on  a  journey  in  Ireland,  William 
Penn  heard  his  old  friend  Thomas  Loe  speak  of  the 
faith  that  overcomes  the  world ;  the  undying  fires  of 
enthusiasm  at  once  blazed  up  within  him,  and  he  re- 
nounced every  hope  for  the  path  of  integrity.  It  is  a 
path  into  which,  says  Penn,  "  God,  in  his  everlasting 
kindness,  guided  my  feet  in  the  flower  of  my  youth, 
when  about  two-and-twenty  years  of  age."  And  in 
the  autumn  of  that  year,  he  was  in  jail  for  the  crime 
of  listening  to  the  voice  of  conscience.  "  Religion  " — 
such  was  his  remonstrance  to  the  viceroy  of  Ireland — 
"  is  my  crime  and  my  innocence ;  it  makes  me  a  pris- 
onei  to  malice,  but  my  own  freeman." 

1666.  After  his  enlargement,  returning  to  England,  he  en- 
countered bitter  mockings  and  scornings,  the  invectives 
of  the  priests,  the  strangeness  of  all  his  old  compan- 
ions ; 3  it  was  noised  about,  in  the  fashionable  world,  as 
an  excellent  jest,  that  "William  Penn  was  a  Quaker 
again,  or  some  very  melancholy  thing  ;  "4  and  his  father, 

1667.  in  anger,  turned  him  penniless  out  of  doors. 

The  outcast,   saved  from    extreme  indigence  by  a 

1668.  mother's  fondness,  became  an  author,  and  announced 
to  princes,  priests,  and  people,  that  he  was  one  of  the 

'as!  '  despised,  afflicted  and  forsaken  Quakers  ;  and  repair- 

1  No  Cross  No  Crown,  c.  ix.  3  Ibid.    So  Besse. 

a  Penn,  ii.  465.  «  Pepys,  ii.  172. 


PREVIOUS   LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PENN.  371 

ing  to  court  with  his  hat  on,  he  sought  to  engage  the  CHAP 
duke  of  Buckingham  in  favor  of  liberty  of  conscience,  ^^ 
claimed  from  those  in  authority  better  quarters  for  dis- 
senters than  stocks,  and  whips,  and  dungeons,  and 
banishments,  and  was  urging  the  cause  of  freedom  with 
importunity,  when  he  himself,  in  the  heyday  of  youth, 
was  consigned  to  a  long  and  close  imprisonment  in  the 
tower.1  His  offence  was  heresy  :  the  bishop  of  Lon- 
don menaced  him  with  imprisonment  for  life  unless  he 
would  recant.  "  My  prison  shall  be  my  grave,"  an-  1669 
swered  Penn.  The  kind-hearted  Charles  II.  sent  the 
humane  and  candid  Stillingfleet  to  calm  the  young 
enthusiast.  "  The  tower  " — such  was  Penn's  message 
to  the  king — "  is  to  me  the  worst  argument  in.  the 
world."  In  vain  did  Stillingfleet  urge  the  motive  of 
royal  favor  and  preferment ;  the  inflexible  young  man 
demanded  freedom  of  Arlington,  "  as  the  natural  priv- 
ilege of  an  Englishman."  Club-law,  he  argued  with 
the  minister,  may  make  hypocrites  ;  it  never  can  make 
converts.  Conscience  needs  no  mark  of  public  allow- 
ance. It  is  not  like  a  bale  of  goods  that  is  to  be  forfeit- 
ed unless  it  has  the  stamp  of  the  custom-house.  After 
losing  his  freedom  for  about  nine  months,  his  prison 
door  was  opened  by  the  intercession  of  his  father's 
friend,  the  duke  of  York ;  for  his  constancy  had  com- 
manded the  respect  and  recovered  the  favor  of  his  father. 
The  Quakers,  exposed  to  judicial  tyranny,  were  led, 
by  the  sentiment  of  humanity,  to  find  a  barrier  against 
their  oppressors  by  narrowing  the  application  of  the 
common  law,  and  restricting  the  right  of  judgment 
to  the  jury.  Scarcely  had  Penn  been  at  liberty  a  year, 
when,  after  the  intense  intolerance  of  "  the  conventicle 
act,"  he  was  arraigned  for  having  spoken  at  a  Quaker  1670 

i  Penn's  Apology  for  himself.    Mem.  P.  H.  S.  238,  239. 


372  PREVIOUS  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PENN. 

* 

CHAP  meeting.  "  Not  all  the  powers  on  earth  shall  divert 
— -  us  from  meeting  to  adore  our  God  who  made  us." 
16"</  j  Thus  did  the  young  man  of  five-and-twenty  defy  the 
&  English  legislature ;  and  he  demanded  on  what  law 
the  indictment  was  founded. — "  On  the  common  law," 
answered  the  recorder.  "  Where  is  that  law  ? "  de- 
manded Penn.  "  The  law  which  is  not  in  being,  far 
from  being  common,  is  no  law  at  all."  Amidst  angry 
exclamations  ana  menaces,  he  proceeded  to  plead 
earnestly  for  the  fundamental  laws  of  England,  and, 
as  he  was  hurried  out  of  court,  still  reminded  the  jury, 
that  "they  were  his  judges." — Dissatisfied  with  the 
first  verdict  returned,  the  recorder  heaped  upon  the 
jury  every  opprobrious  epithet.  "  We  will  have  a  ver- 
dict, by  the  help  of  God,  or  you  shall  starve  for  it." — 
"  You  are  Englishmen,"  said  Penn,  who  had  been  again 
brought  to  the  bar ;  "  mind  your  privilege  ,  give  not 
away  your  right." — "  It  never  will  be  well  with  us," 
said  the  recorder,  "  till  something  like  the  Spanish 
inquisition  be  in  England."  At  last  the  jury,  who  had 
received  no  refreshments  for  two  days  and  two  nights, 
on  the  third  day,  gave  their  verdict,  "  Not  Guilty." 
The  recorder  fined  them  forty  marks  apiece  for  their 
independence,  and,  amercing  Penn  for  contempt  of 
court,  sent  him  back  to  prison.  The  trial  was  an  era 
in  judicial  history.  The  fines  were  soon  afterwards 
discharged  by  his  father,  who  was  now  approaching 
his  end.  "  Son  William,"  said  the  dying  admiral,  "  if 
you  and  your  friends  keep  to  your  plain  way  of  preach- 
ing and  living,  you  will  make  an  end  of  the  priests." 

Inheriting  a  large  fortune,  he  continued  to  defend 
publicly,  from  the  press,  the  principles  of  intellectual 
liberty  and  moral  equality ;  he  remonstrated  in  un- 
measured terms  against  the  bigotry  and  intolerance, 


PREVIOUS  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM   PENH.  373 

"  the  hellish  darkness  and  debauchery,"  of  the  univer-  CHAP 
sity  of  Oxford ;  he  exposed  the  errors  of  the  Roman  -~-»— 
Catholic  church,  and  in  the  same  breath  pleaded  for  a 
toleration  of  their  worship ;  and  never  fearing  openly 
to  address  a  Quaker  meeting,  he  was  soon  on  the  road 
to  Newgate,  to  suffer  for  his  honesty  by  a  six  months'  1670 
imprisonment.  "  You  are  an  ingenious  gentleman," 
said  the  magistrate  at  the  trial ;  "  you  have  a  plentiful 
estate ;  why  should  you  render  yourself  unhappy  by 
associating  with  such  a  simple  people?" — "  I  prefer," 
said  Penn,  "  the  honestly  simple  to  the  ingeniously 
wicked."  The  magistrate  rejoined  by  charging  Penn 
with  previous  immoralities.  The  young  man,  with  pas- 
sionate vehemence,  vindicated  the  spotlessness  of  his 
life.  "  I  speak  this,"  he  adds,  "  to  God's  glory,  who 
has  ever  preserved  me  from  the  power  of  these  pollu- 
tions, and  who,  from  a  child,  begot  a  hatred  in  me 
towards  them."  "  Thy  words  shall  be  thy  burden  ;  I 
trample  thy  slander  as  dirt  under  my  feet." 

From  Newgate  Penn  addressed  parliament  and  the 
nation  in  the  noblest  plea  for  liberty  of  conscience — a 
liberty  which  he  defended  by  arguments  drawn  from 
experience,  from  religion,  and  from  reason.  If  the 
efforts  of  the  Quakers  cannot  obtain  "  the  olive  branch 
of  toleration,  we  bless  the  providence  of  God,  resolving 
by  patience  to  outweary  persecution,  and  by  our  con- 
stant sufferings  to  obtain  a  victory  more  glorious  than 
our  adversaries  can  achieve  by  their  cruelties." 

On  his  release  from  imprisonment,  a  calmer  season  1671 
followed.     Penn  travelled  in  Holland  and  Germany;  1^7 ;j 
then  returning  to  England,  he  married  a  woman  of  ex- 
traordinary beauty  and  sweetness  of  temper,  whose 
noble  spirit    "  chose  him  before    many   suitors,"  and 
honored  him  with  "  a  deep  and  upright  love."     As 


374  PREVIOUS  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  PENN 

CHAI  persecution  in  England  was  suspended,  he  enjoyed  for 
—v-  two  years  the  delights  of  rural  life,  and  the  animating 
pursuit  of  letters ;  till  the  storm  was  renewed,  and  the 
imprisonment  of  George  Fox,  on  his  return  from 
America,  demanded  intercession.  What  need  of  nar- 
rating the  severities,  which,  like  a  slow  poison,  brought 
the  prisoner  to  the  borders  of  the  grave  ?  Why  enu- 
merate the  atrocities  of  petty  tyrants,  invested  with 
village  magistracies,  the  ferocious  passions  of  irrespon- 
sible jailers  ?  The  Statute  Book  of  England  contains 
the  clearest  impress  of  the  bigotry  which  a  national 
church  could  foster,  and  a  parliament  avow ;  and  Penn, 
in  considering  England's  present  interest,  far  from 
resting  his  appeal  on  the  sentiment  of  mercy,  merited 
the  highest  honors  of  a  statesman  by  the  profound 
sagacity  and  unbiased  judgment  with  which  he  un- 
folded the  question  of  the  rights  of  conscience  in  its 
connection  with  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  state. 

It  was  this  love  of  freedom  of  conscience  which  gave 
interest  to  his  exertions  for  New  Jersey.  The  summer 
and  autumn  after  the  first  considerable  Quaker  emigra- 
tion to  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Delaware,  George  Fox, 
and  William  Penn,  and  Robert  Barclay,  with  others, 
embarked  for  Holland,  to  evangelize  the  continent ; 
and  Barclay  and  Penn  went  to  and  fro  in  Germany, 
from  the  Weser  to  the  Mayne,  the  Rhine,  and  the 
Neckar,  distributing  tracts,  discoursing  with  men  of 
every  sect  and  every  rank,  preaching  in  palaces  and 
among  the  peasants,  rebuking  every  attempt  to  inthrall 
the  mind,  and  sending  reproofs  to  kings  and  magis- 
trates, to  the  princes  and  lawyers  of  all  Christendom. 
The  soul  of  William  Penn  was  transported  into  fervors 
of  devotion  ;  and,  in  the  ecstasies  of  enthusiasm,  he  ex- 
plained "  the  universal  principle"  at  Herford,  in  the 


PREVIOUS   LIFE   OF   WILLIAM   PENN.  375 

tourt  of  the  princess  palatine,  and  to  the  few  Quaker  CHAP 
converts  among  the  peasantry  of  Kirchheim.  To  the  — *-~ 
peasantry  of  the  highlands  near  Worms,  the  visit  of  1678 
William  Penn  was  an  event  never  to  be  forgotten. 

The  opportunity  of  observing  the  aristocratic  insti- 
tutions of  Holland  and  the  free  commercial  cities  of 
Germany,  was  valuable  to  a  statesman.  On  his  return 
to  England,  the  new  sufferings  of  the  Quakers  excited 
a  direct  appeal  to  the  English  parliament.  The  special 
law  against  Papists  was  turned  against  the  Quakers ; 
Penn  explained  the  difference  between  his  society  and 
the  Papists ;  and  yet,  in  an  age  of  Protestant  bigotry, 
at  a  season  when  that  bigotry  was  become  a  jealous 
frenzy,  he  appeared  before  a  committee  of  the  house 
of  commons  to  plead  for  universal  liberty  of  conscience. 
"  We  must  give  the  liberty  we  ask  ; " — such  was  the 
sublime  language  of  the  Quakers ; — "  we  cannot  be 
false  to  our  principles,  though  it  were  to  relieve  our- 
selves ;  for  we  would  have  none  to  suffer  for  dissent  on 
any  hand." 

Defeated  in  his  hopes  by  the  prorogation  and  dissolu-  1679 
tion  of  the  parliament,  Penn  appealed  to  the  people,  and 
took  an  active  part  in  the  ensuing  elections.  He  urged 
the  electors  throughout  England  to  knew  their  own 
strength  and  authority ;  to  hold  their  representatives  to 
be  properly  and  truly  their  servants,  to  maintain  their  lib- 
erties, their  share  in  legislation,  and  their  share  in  the  ap- 
plication of  the  laws.  "  Your  well  being  " — these  were 
his  words — "  depends  upon  youi  preservation  of  your 
right  in  the  government.  You  are  free  ;  God,  and  na- 
ture, and  the  constitution,  have  made  you  trustees  for 
posterity.  Choose  men  who  will,  by  all  just  and  legal 
ways,  firmly  keep  and  zealously  promote  your  power." 
And  as  Algernon  Sydney  now  "  embarked  with  those 


376  WILLIAM  PENN  AT  NEWCASTLE. 

CHAP,  that  did  seek,  love,  and  choose  the  best  things,"  Wil- 

XVI. 

— ~  Ham  Penn,  with  fearless  enthusiasm,  engaged  in  the 
election,  and  obtained  for  him  a  majority  which  was 
defeated  only  by  a  false  return. 

1680  But  every  hope  of  reform  from  parliament  vanished. 
Bigotry  and  tyranny  prevailed  more  than  ever,  and 
Penn,  despairing  of  relief  in  Europe,  bent  the  whole 
energy  of  his  mind  to  accomplish  the  establishment  of  a 
free  government  in  the  New  World.  For  that "  heaven- 

1682.  ly  end,"  he  was  prepared  by  the  severe  discipline  of 
27.  life,  and  the  love,  without  dissimulation,  which  formed 
the  basis  of  his  character.  The  sentiment  of  cheerful 
humanity  was  irrepressibly  strong  in  his  bosom  ;  as 
with  John  Eliot  and  Roger  Williams,  benevolence 
gushed  prodigally  from  his  ever-overflowing  heart ;  and 
when,  in  his  late  old  age,  his  intellect  was  impaired, 
and  his  reason  prostrated  by  apoplexy,  his  sweetness 
of  disposition  rose  serenely  over  the  clouds  of  disease. 
Possessing  an  extraordinary  greatness  of  mind,  vast 
conceptions,  remarkable  for  their  universality  and  pre- 
cision, and  "  surpassing  in  speculative  endowments;"1 
conversant  with  men,  and  books,  and  governments, 
with  various  languages,  and  the  forms  of  political  com- 
binations, as  they  existed  in  England  and  France,  in 
Holland,  and  the  principalities  and  free  cities  of  Germa- 
ny, he  yet  sought  the  source  of  wisdom  in  his  own  soul. 
Humane  by  nature  and  by  suffering ;  familiar  with  the 
royal  family ;  intimate  with  Sunderland  and  Sydney ; 
acquainted  with  Russel,  Halifax,  Shaftesbury,  and 
Buckingham ;  as  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society,  the 
peer  of  Newton  and  the  great  scholars  of  his  ?ge, — he 

I  Testimony  of  Friends.    Com-    William  Penn.    So  too  R.  Tyson's 
pare  J.  F.  Fisher's  just  and  exact    Discourse,  1831,  and  Note  2. 
tribute  to  Penn,  in  Private  Life  of 


JOHN   LOCKE   AND    WILLIAM   PENN.  377 

valued  the  promptings  of  a  free  mind  more  than  the  CHAP 
awards  of  the  learned,  and  reverenced  the  single-minded  — v^- 
sincerity  of  the  Nottingham  shepherd  more  than  the  au- 
thority of  colleges  and  the  wisdom  of  philosophers.  And 
now,  being  in  the  meridian  of  life,  but  a  year  older  than 
was  Locke,  when,  twelve  years  before,  he  had  framed  a 
constitution  for  Carolina,  the  Quaker  legislator  was  come 
to  the  New  World  to  lay  the  foundations  of  states. 
Would  he  imitate  the  vaunted  system  of  the  great  phi- 
losopher ?  Locke,  like  William  Penn,  was  tolerant ; 
both  loved  freedom ;  both  cherished  truth  in  sincerity. 
But  Locke  kindled  the  torch  of  liberty  at  the  fires  of  tra- 
dition ;  Penn  at  the  living  light  in  the  soul.  Locke 
sought  truth  through  the  senses  and  the  outward  world ; 
Penn  looked  inward  to  the  divine  revelations  in  every 
mind.  Locke  compared  the  soul  to  a  sheet  of  white  pa- 
per, just  as  Hobbes  had  compared  it  to  a  slate,  on  which 
time  and  chance  might  scrawl  their  experience ;  to 
Penn,  the  soul  was  an  organ  which  of  itself  instinctively 
breathes  divine  harmonies,  like  those  musical  instru- 
ments which  are  so  curiously  and  perfectly  framed, 
that,  when  once  set  in  motion,  they  of  themselves  give 
forth  all  the  melodies  designed  by  the  artist  that  made 
them.  To  Locke,1  "  Conscience  is  nothing  else  than 
our  own  opinion  of  our  own  actions  ;  "  to  Penn,  it  is 
the  image  of  God,  and  his  oracle  in  the  soul.  Locke, 
who  was  never  a  father,  esteemed  "  the  duty  of  parents 
to  preserve  their  children  not  to  be  understood  without 
reward  and  punishment;"2  Penn  loved  his  children, 
with  not  a  thought  for  the  consequences.  Locke,  who 
was  never  married,  declares  marriage  an  affair  of  the 
senses  ;3  Penn  reverenced  woman  as  the  object  of  fer- 

1  Essay  on  the  Human  Under-        2  Locke's  Essay,  b.  ii.  c.  hi.  s.  12. 
•landing,  b.  i.  c.  iii.  s  8.  3  Ibid.  ii.  xxi.  34. 

VOL.  ii.  48 


378 


JOHN   LOCKE   AND   WILLIAM    PENN 


CHAP  vent,  inward  affection,  made,  not  for  lust,  but  for  love 

XVI. 

— ~  In  studying  the  understanding,  Locke  begins  with  the 
sources  of  knowledge  ;  Penn  with  an  inventory  of  our 
intellectual  treasures.  Locke  deduces  government 
from  Noah  and  Adam,  rests  it  upon  contract,  and  an- 
nounces its  end  to  be  the  security  of  property;  Penn, 
far  from  going  back  to  Adam,  or  even  to  Noah,  declares 
that  "there  must  be  a  people  before  a  government,"1  and, 
deducing  the  right  to  institute  government  from  man's 
moral  nature,  seeks  its  fundamental  rules  in  the  immu- 
table dictates  "  of  universal  reason,"  its  end  in  freedom 
and  happiness.  The  system  of  Locke  lends  itself  to 
contending  factions  of  the  most  opposite  interests  and 
purposes  ;  the  doctrine  of  Fox  and  Penn,  being  but  the 
common  creed  of  humanity,  forbids  division,  and  insures 
the  highest  moral  unity.  To  Locke,  happiness  is 
pleasure ; a  things  are  good  and  evil  only  in  reference 
to  pleasure  and  pain  ;3  and  to  "  inquire  after  the  highest 
good  is  as  absurd  as  to  dispute  whether  the  best  relish 
be  in  apples,  plums,  or  nuts;"4  Penn  esteemed  happi- 
ness to  lie  in  the  subjection  of  the  baser  instincts  to 
the  instinct  of  Deity  in  the  breast,  good  and  evil  to  be 
eternally  and  always  as  unlike  as  truth  and  falsehood, 
and  the  inquiry  after  the  highest  good  to  involve  the 
purpose  of  existence.  Locke  says  plainly,  that,  but  for 
rewards  and  punishments  beyond  the  grave,  "  it  is  cer- 
tainly right  to  eat  and  drink,  and  enjoy  what  we  delight 
in;"5  Penn,  like  Plato  and  Fenelon,  maintained  the 
doctrine  so  terrible  to  despots,  that  God  is  to  be  loved 
for  his  own  sake,  and  virtue  to  be  practised  for  its  in- 
trinsic loveliness.  Locke  derives  the  idea  of  infinity 

1  Ar*   Union,  in  Penn.  S.  Laws.  3  Essay  on  the  Human  Under- 

2  Essay  on  the  Human  Under-    standing,  ii.  xx.  2. 

•tending,  b.  ii.  xxi.  42.  *  Ibid.  ii.  xxL  55  5  Ibid. 


JOHN    LOCKE   AND    WILLIAM   PENfl.  379 

from  the  senses,  describes  it  as  purely  negative,  and  CHAI. 
attributes  it  to  nothing  but  space,  duration,  and  num-  •— » -^ 
ber  ;J  Penn  derived  the  idea  from  the  soul,  and  ascribed 
it  to  truth,  and  virtue,  and  God.  Locke  declares 
immortality2  a  matter  with  which  reason  has  nothing 
to  do,  and  that  revealed  truth  must  be  sustained3  by 
outward  signs  and  visible  acts  of  power  ;  Penn  saw 
truth  by  its  own  light,  and  summoned  the  soul  to  bear 
witness  to  its  own  glory.  Locke  believed  "  not  so 
many  men  in  wrong  opinions  as  is  commonly  supposed, 
because  the  greatest  part  have  no  opinions  at  all,  and 
do  not  know  what  they  contend  for ; " 4  Penn  likewise 
vindicated  the  many,  but  it  was  because  truth  is  the 
common  inheritance  of  the  race.  Locke,  in  his  love 
of  tolerance,  inveighed  against  the  methods  of  persecu- 
tion as  "  Popish  practices ; "  Penn  censured  no  sect, 
but  condemned  bigotry  of  all  sorts  as  inhuman.  Locke, 
as  an  American  lawgiver,  dreaded  a  too  numerous  de- 
mocracy, and  reserved  all  power  to  wealth  and  the 
feudal  proprietaries ;  Penn  believed  that  God  is  in 
every  conscience,  his  light  in  every  soul ;  and  therefore, 
stretching  out  his  arms,  he  built — such  are  his  own 
words — "  a  free  colony  for  all  mankind."  This  is  tha 
praise  of  William  Penn,  that,  in  an  age  which  had  seon 
a  popular  revolution  shipwreck  popular  liberty  among 
selfish  factions,  which  had  seen  Hugh  Peters  and  Hen- 
ry V7ane  perish  by  the  hangman's  cord  and  the  axe ; 
in  an  age  when  Sydney  nourished  the  pride  of 
patriotism  rather  than  the  sentiment  of  philanthropy, 
when  Russel  stood  for  the  liberties  of  his  order,  and 

1  Essay  on  the  Human  Under-  the  Quakers.    It  is  not  always  pos- 
standing,  ii.  xvii.  1.  sible   to  know  when  Locke  is  op- 

2  (bid.  iv.  xviii.  7.  posing    Descartes,  and   when    the 

3  Ibid.  iv.  xix.  15.  disciples  of  George   Fox.     He  re- 

4  Locke's  whole  chapter  on  En-  futes   both  by  partial    representa- 
thusiasm  was  probably  levelled  at  tione  of  their  views. 


380  PENN  TAKES  POSSESSION  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAP,  not  for  new  enfranchisements,  when  Harrington,  and 

~  Shaftesbury,  and  Locke,  thought  government  should 

rest  on  property, — Penn  did  not  despair  of  humanity, 
v/  and,  though  all  history  and  experience1  denied  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  dared  to  cherish  the  noble 
idea  of  man's  capacity  for  self-government.  Conscious 
that  there  was  no  room  for  its  exercise  in  England,  the 
pure  enthusiast,  like  Calvin  and  Descartes,  a  voluntary 
exile,  was  come  to  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  to  insti- 
tute "  THE  HOLY  EXPERIMENT." 

1682        The  news  spread  rapidly,  that  the  Quaker  king  was 
27,     at  Newcastle ;  and,2  on  the  day  after  his  landing,  in 

Qfi 

presence  of  a  crowd  of  Swedes,  and  Dutch,  and 
English,  who  had  gathered  round  the  court-house,  his 
deeds  of  feoffment  were  produced  ;  the  duke  of  York's 
agent  surrendered  the  territory  by  the  solemn  delivery 
of  earth  and  water,  and  Penn,  invested  with  supreme 
and  undefined  power  in  Delaware,  addressed  the 
assembled  multitude  on  government,  recommended 
sobriety  and  peace,  and  pledged  himself  to  grant  liberty 
of  conscience  and  civil  freedom. 

From  Newcastle,  Penn  ascended  the  Delaware  to 
Chester,  where  he  was  hospitably  received  by  the 
honest,  kind-hearted  emigrants  who  had  preceded  him 
from  the  north  of  England  ;  the  little  village  of  herds- 
men and  farmers,  with  their  plain  manners,  gentle 
dispositions,  and  tranquil  passions,  seemed  a  harbinger 
of  a  golden  age. 

From  Chester,  tradition  describes  the  journey  of 
Penn  to  have  been  continued  with  a  few  friends  in  an 


1  See    Hume's    account  of  the  from  Penn's  letter.    But  the  copyist 
meeting  of  the  Long  Parliament.  may  have  mistaken  a  figure ;  or  Penn 

2  Proud,  i.   205.      The   date    in  may  have  alluded  to  his  entrance 
Chalmers    and    Proud,   of    Penn's  within  the   capes.     See  the  New- 
landing,  is  October  24.     It  is  taken  castle  Records,  in  Watson,  16. 


THE  GREAT  TREATY  WITH  THE  LENNI  LENAPE.      381 

open  boat,  in  the  earliest  days  of  November,  to  the  CHAP 
beautiful  bank,  fringed  with  pine-trees,  on  which  the  —• v^ 
citj  of  Philadelphia  was  soon  to  rise. 

In  the  following  weeks,  Penn  visited  West  and  East  1682 
New  Jersey,  New  York,  the  metropolis  of  his  neighbor 
proprietary,    the   duke   of  York,    and,  after   meeting 
Friends  on  Long  Island,  he  returned  to  the  banks  of 
the  Delaware.1 

To  this  period2  belongs  his  first  grand  treaty  with 
the  Indians.  Beneath  a  large  elm-tree  at  Shakamaxon, 
on  the  northern  edge  of  Philadelphia,3  William  Penn, 
surrounded  by  a  few  friends,  in  the  habiliments  of 
peace,  met  the  numerous  delegation  of  the  Lenni 
Lenape  tribes.  The  great  treaty  was  not  for  the 
purchase  of  lands,  but,  confirming  what  Penn  had  writ- 
ten, and  Markham  covenanted,  its  sublime  purpose 
was  the  recognition  of  the  equal  rights  of  humanity.4 
Under  the  shelter  of  the  forest,  now  leafless  by  the 
frosts  of  autumn,  Penn  proclaimed  to  the  men  'of  the 
Algonquin  race,  from  both  banks  of  the  Delaware,  from 
the  borders  of  the  Schuylkill,  and,  it  may  have  been, 
even  from  the  Susquehannah,  the  same  simple  message 
of  peace  and  love  which  George  Fox  had  professed  be- 
fore Cromwell,  and  Mary  Fisher  had  borne  to  the  Grand 
Turk.  The  English  and  the  Indian  should  respect  the 
same  moral  law,  should  be  alike  secure  in  their  pursuits 
and  their  possessions,  and  adjust  every  difference  by 
a  peaceful  tribunal,  composed  of  an  equal  number  of 
men  from  each  race. 

"  We  meet " — such  were  the  words  of  William  Penn 

1  Perm's  Letter.  letter  to  the  Indians,  in  whicl   he 

a  Duponceau  and  Fisher,  57.  proposes  the  future  personal  inter- 

3  On  the   place,  Vaux,  Peters,  view.     It  is  to  be  regretted,  that  no 
Conyngham,  in  Penn.  Mem.  1.  original  record  of  the  meeting  has 

4  Duponceau  and   Fisher.     See  been  preserved. 
Concessions,  xi. — xv.,  and   Penn's 


382      THE  GREAT  TREATY  WITH  THE  LENNI  LENAPE. 

CHAP.  — "  on  the  broad  pathway  of  good  faith  and  good  will , 

--v^  no  advantage  shall  be  taken  on  either  side,  but  all  shall 

^ov    ^e  openness  and  love.     I  will  not  call  you  children ; 

Dec.   for  parents  sometimes  chide  their  children  too  severely ; 

nor  brothers  only  ;  for  brothers  differ.     The  friendship 

between  me  and  you  I  will  not  compare  to  a  chain  ;  for 

that  the  rains   might  rust,  or  the  falling  tree   might 

break.     We  are  the  same  as  if  one  man's  body  were 

to  be  divided  into  two  parts  ;  we  are  all  one  flesh  and 

blood." 

The  children  of  the  forest  were  touched  by  the 
sacred  doctrine,  and  renounced  their  guile  and  their 
revenge.  They  received  the  presents  of  Penn  in  sin- 
cerity ;  and  with  hearty  friendship  they  gave  the  belt 
of  wampum.  "  We  will  live,"  said  they,  "  in  love 
with  William  Penn  and  his  children,  as  long  as  the 
moon  and  the  sun  shall  endure." 

This  treaty  of  peace  and  friendship  was  made  under 
the  open  sky,  by  the  side  of  the  Delaware,  with  the 
sun,  and  the  river,  and  the  forest,  for  witnesses.  It 
was  not  confirmed  by  an  oath  ;  it  was  not  ratified  by 
signatures  and  seals ;  no  written  record  of  the  con- 
ference can  be  found ;  and  its  terms  and  conditions 
had  no  abiding  monument  but  on  the  heart.  There 
they  were  written  like  the  law  of  God,  and  were  never 
forgotten.  The  simple  sons  of  the  wilderness,  return- 
ing to  their  wigwams,  kept  the  history  of  the  covenant 
by  strings  of  wampum,  and,  long  afterwards,  in  their 
cabins,  would  count  over  the  shells  on  a  clean  piece  of 
bark,  and  recall  to  their  own  memory,  and  repeat  to 
their  children  or  to  the  stranger,  the  words  of  William 
Penn.1  New  England  had  just  terminated  a  disastrous 

I  Heckewelder,  Hist  Trans.  Am.  Phil.  Soc  176. 


WEST'S  PICTURE  OF  THE  TREATY   INCORRECT  383 

war  of  extermination :  the  Dutch  were  scarcely  ever  CHAP 

XVI 

at  peace  with  the  Algonquins  ;  the  laws  of  Maryland  ^~L 
refer  to  Indian  hostilities  and  massacres,  which  extend-  168a 
ed  as  far  as  Richmond.     Penn  came  without  arms  ;  he 
declared  his  purpose  to  abstain  from  violence ;  he  had 
no  message  but  peace  ;  and  not  a  drop  of  Quaker  blood 
was  ever  shed  by  an  Indian. 

Was  there  not  progress  from  Melendez  to  Roger 
Williams  ?  from  Cortez  and  Pizarro  to  William  Penn  ? 
The  Quakers,  ignorant  of  the  homage  which  their  vir- 
tues would  receive  from  Voltaire  and  Raynal,  men  so 
unlike  themselves,  exulted  in  the  consciousness  of  their 
humanity.  We  have  done  better,  said  they  truly, 
"  than  if,  with  the  proud  Spaniards,  we  had  gained  the 
mines  of  Potosi.  We  may  make  the  ambitious  heroes, 
whom  the  world  admires,  blush  for  their  shameful  vic- 
tories. To  the  poor,  dark  souls  round  about  us  we 
teach  their  RIGHTS  AS  MEN."1 

The  scene  at  Shackamaxon  forms  the  subject  of  one 
of  the  pictures  of  West ;  but  the  artist,  faithful  neither 
to  the  Indians  nor  to  Penn,  should  have  no  influence 
on  history.2  Shall  the  event  be  commemorated  by 
the  pencil  ?  Imagine  the  chiefs  of  the  savage  com- 
munities, of  noble  shape  and  grave  demeanor,  assembled 
in  council  without  arms ;  the  old  men  sit  in  a  half- 
moon  upon  the  ground ;  the  middle-aged  are  in  a  like 
figure  at  a  little  distance  behind  them ;  the  young  for- 
esters form  a  third  semicircle  in  the  rear.  Before  them 
stands  William  Penn,  graceful  in  the  summer  of  life, 
in  dress  scarce  distinguished  by  a  belt,  surrounded  by 
a  few  Friends,  chiefly  young  men,  and,  like  Anaxago- 

1  Planter's  Speech,  1684.  ticism,  I  have  not  rested  one  single 

2  Clarkson  countenances  the  mis-  fact  relating  to  Penn  on  Clarkson's 
takes  of  the  painter.  With  perhaps  an  authority,  but  have  verified  all   by 
•nnetessary  excess  of  critical  skep-  documents  and  original  sources. 


384         THE  GREAT  LAW  ENACTED  AT  CHESTER 

CHAP,  ras,  whose  example  he  cherished,  pointing  to  the  skies, 
as  the  tranquil  home,  to  which  not  Christians  only,  but 

" the  souls  of  heathen  go, 

Who  better  live  than  we,  though  less  they  know." 

1 683  In  the  following  year,  Penn  often  met  the  Indians  in 
council,  and  at  their  festivals.  He  visited  them  in 
their  cabins,  shared  the  hospitable  banquet  of  hominy 
and  roasted  acorns,  and  laughed,  and  frolicked,  and 
practised  athletic  games  with  the  light-hearted,  mirthful, 
confiding  red  men.  He  spoke  with  them  of  religion, 
and  found  that  the  tawny  skin  did  not  exclude  the 
instinct  of  a  Deity.  "  The  poor  savage  people  believed 
in  God  and  the  soul  without  the  aid  of  metaphysics." 
He  touched  the  secret  springs  of  sympathy,  and  suc- 
ceeding generations  on  the  Susquehannah  acknowl- 
edged his  loveliness. 

Peace  existed  with  the  natives ;  the  contentment  of 
the  emigrants  was  made  perfect  by  the  happy  inau- 

1682.  guration  of  the  government.  A  general  convention 
'>  had  been  permitted  by  Penn  :  the  people  preferred  to 
appear  by  their  representatives  ;  and  in  three  days  the 
work  of  preparatory  legislation  at  Chester  was  finished. 
The  charter  from  the  king  did  not  include  the  territo- 
ries ;  these  were  now  enfranchised  by  the  joint  act  of 
the  inhabitants  and  the  proprietary,  and  united  with 
Pennsylvania  on  the  basis  of  equal  rights.  The  free- 
dom of  all  the  inhabitants  being  thus  confirmed,  the 
Inward  Voice,  which  was  the  celestial  visitant  to  the 
Quakers,  dictated  a  code.  God  was  declared  the  only 
Lord  of  conscience  ;  the  first  day  of  the  week  was 
reserved,  as  a  day  of  leisure,  for  the  ease  of  the  cre- 
ation. The  rule  of  equality  was  introduced  into  fami- 
lies by  abrogating  the  privileges  of  primogeniture. 


DISPUTE   WITH   BALTIMORE   ON   BOUNDARIES.  385 

The  word  of  an  honest  man  was  evidence  without  an  CHAP. 

XVL 

oath.  The  mad  spirit  of  speculation  was  checked  by  ^ — 
a  system  of  strict  accountability,  applied  to  factors  and  1682 
agents.  Every  man  liable  to  civil  burdens,  possessed  4—7* 
the  right  of  suffrage  ;  and,  without  regard  to  sect,  every 
Christian  was  eligible  to  office.  No  tax  or  custom 
could  be  levied  but  by  law.  The  Quaker  is  a  spiritu- 
alist ;  the  pleasures  of  the  senses,  masks,  revels,  and 
stage-plays,  not  less  than  bull-baits  and  cock-fights, 
were  prohibited.  Murder  was  the  only  crime  punish- 
able by  death.  Marriage  was  esteemed  a  civil  con- 
tract ;  adultery  a  felony.  The  Quakers  had  suffered 
from  wrong  imprisonment ;  the  false  accuser  was 
liable  to  double  damages.  Every  prison  for  convicts 
was  made  a  workhouse.  There  were  neither  poor 
rates  nor  tithes.  The  Swedes,  and  Finns,  and 
Dutch,  were  invested  with  the  liberties  of  English- 
men. Well  might  Lawrence  Cook  exclaim  in  their 
behalf,  "  It  is  the  best  day  we  have  ever  seen." 
The  work  of  legislation  being  finished,  the  proprie- 
tary urged  upon  the  house  his  religious  counsel,1  and 
the  assembly  was  adjourned. 

The  government  having  been  organized,  William 
Penn,  accompanied  by  members  of  his  council,  hastened 
to  West  River,  to  interchange  courtesies  with  Lord  Bal- 
timore, and  fix  the  limits  of  their  respective  provinces.  Dcc< 
The  adjustment  was  difficult.  Lord  Baltimore  claimed 
by  his  charter  the  whole  country  as  far  as  the  fortieth 
degree.  Penn  replied,  just  as  the  Dutch  and  the 
agents  of  the  duke  of  York  had  always  urged,  that  the 
charter  for  Maryland  included  only  lands  that  were  still 
unoccupied  ;  that  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  had  been 

1  Votes  and  Proceedings  of  the    Province  of  Pennsylvania.    Printed 
House   of  Representatives  of  the    and  sold  by  B.  Franklin.    P.  7. 

VOL.  ii.  49 


386  DISPUTE  WITH   BALTIMORE  ON  BOUNDARIES. 

CHAP,  purchased,    appropriated,   and   colonized,    before    that 

A:    V   JL  _  ^^ 

^~~  charter  was  written.  For  more  than  fifty  years,  the 
country  had  been  in  the  hands  of  the  Dutch  and  their 
successors  ;  and  during  that  whole  period,  the  claim 
of  Lord  Baltimore  had  always  been  resisted.  The 
answer  of  Penn  was  true,  and  conformed  to  English 
law  as  applied  to  the  colonies.  In  1623,  the  Dutch 
had  built  Fort  Nassau,  in  New  Jersey  ;  and  the  soil  of 
Delaware  was  purchased  by  Godyn,  and  colonized  by 
De  Vries,  before  the  promise  of  King  Charles  to  Sir 
George  Calvert.  This  is  the  basis  of  the  claim  of  Wil- 
liam Penn ;  and  its  justice  had  already  been  repeatedly 
sustained.  Penn  knew  that  it  was  just ;  yet  his 
sweetness  of  disposition  prompted  an  apology  for  insist- 
ing on  his  right.  It  was  not  "  for  the  love  of  land,  but 
of  the  water."  Historians  have  wronged  themselves 
by  attributing  to  Penn  the  folly  of  urging  the  eager- 
ness of  his  own  desires,  as  an  argument  for  his  preten- 
sions. His  own  letters  and  the  published  proceedings1 
of  the  committee  of  trade  and  plantations  prove  the 
singleness  of  the  plea  on  which  he  rested ;  the 
voyages  of  De  Vries,  and  the  records  of  Maryland  and 
of  New  York,  establish  its  validity.  But  what  line 
should  be  esteemed  the  limit  of  New  Netherlands  ? 
This  remained  a  subject  for  compromise.  A  discussion 
of  three  days  led  to  no  result :  tired  of  useless  debates, 
Penn  crossed  the  Chesapeake  to  visit  Friends  at  Chop- 
tank;  and  returned  to  his  own  province,  prepared  to 
renew  negotiation,  or  to  submit  to  arbitration  in 
England. 

1683.      The  enthusiasm  of  William  Penn  sustained  his  ex- 
cited mind  in  unceasing  exertion  ;  and  he  now  se.ected 

1  Votes  and  Proceedings,  xiii.,  &c. 


PHILADELPHIA.  387 

a  site  for  a  city,  purchased  the  ground  of  the  Swedes,  CHAP 
and  in  a  situation  "  not  surpassed  " — such  are  his  words  — ^ 
— "  by  one  among  all  the  many  places  he  had  seen  in  *fes 
the  world," — and  he  had  seen  the  cities  of  Europe  from  and 
Bremen  to  Turin, — on  a  neck  of  land  between  the 
Schuylkill  and  Delaware,  appointed  for  a  town  by  the 
convenience  of  the  rivers,  the  firmness  of  the  land,  the 
pure  springs  and  salubrious  air,  William  Penn  laid  out 
Philadelphia,  the  city  of  refuge,  the  mansion  of  free- 
dom, the  home  of  humanity.  Pleasant  visions  of 
innocence  and  happiness  floated  before  the  imagination 
of  his  Quaker  brethren.  "Here,"  said  they,  "we  may 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  the  Divine 
Principle,  free  from  the  mouldy  errors  of  tradition ; 
here  we  may  thrive,  in  peace  and  retirement,  in  the  lap 
of  unadulterated  nature  ;  here  we  may  improve  an 
:innocent  course  of  life  on  a  virgin  Elysian  shore." 
But  vast  as  were  the  hopes  of  the  humble  Friends,  who 
now  marked  the  boundaries  of  streets  on  the  chestnut, 
or  ash  and  walnut  trees  of  the  original  forest,  they 
were  surpassed  by  the  reality.  Pennsylvania  bound  the 
northern  and  the  southern  colonies  in  bonds  stronger 
than  paper  chains  ;  Philadelphia  was  the  birthplace  of 
American  independence  and  the  pledge  of  union. 

In  March,  the  infant  city,  in  which  there  could  have  1683 
been  few  mansions  but  hollow  trees,1  was  already  the 
scene  of  legislation.  From  each  of  the  six  counties 
into  which  Penn's  dominions  were  divided,  nine  repre- 
sentatives, Swedes,  Dutch,  and  Quaker  preachers,  of 
Wales,  and  Ireland,  and  England,  were  elected  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  a  charter  of  liberties.  They 
desired  it  might  be  the  acknowledged  growth  of  the 

i  Watson's  Phil.  225. 


#88  THE  FRAME   OF  GOVERNMENT  FOR  PENNSYLVANIA. 


New  World,  and  bear  date  in  Philadelphia.1  "  To  the 
-—  ~  people  of  this  place,"  said  Penn,  "  I  am  not  like  a 
-  selfish  man  ;  through  my  travail  and  pains  the  province 
came  ;  it  is  now  in  Friends'  hands.  Our  faith  is  for 
one  another,  that  God  will  be  our  counsellor  forever." 
And  when  the  general  assembly  came  together,  he 
referred  to  the  frame  of  government  proposed  in  Eng- 
land, saying,  "  You  may  amend,  alter,  or  add  ;  I  am 
ready  to  settle  such  foundations  as  may  be  for  your 
happiness." 

The  constitution  which  was  established  created  a 
legislative  council  and  a  more  numerous  assembly  ;  the 
former  to  be  elected  for  three  years,  one  third  being 
renewed  annually  ;  the  assembly  to  be  annually  chosen. 
Rotation  in  office  was  enjoined.  The  theory  of  the 
constitution  gave  to  the  governor  and  council  the  initi- 
ation of  all  laws  ;  these  were  to  be  promulgated  to  the 
people  ;  and  the  office  of  the  assembly  was  designed  to 
be  no  more  than  to  report  the  decision  of  the  people  in 
their  primary  meetings.  Thus  no  law  could  be  enact- 
ed but  with  the  direct  assent  of  the  whole  community. 
Such  was  the  system  of  the  charter  of  liberties.  But 
it  received  modifications  from  the  legislature  by  which 
it  was  established.  The  assembly  set  the  precedent 
of  engaging  in  debate,  and  of  proposing  subjects  for 
bills  by  way  of  conference  with  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil. In  return,  by  unanimous  vote,  a  negative  voice 
was  allowed  the  governor8  on  all  the  doings  of  the 

1  Votes,  &c.,  p.  20.  the  provincial  council,  it  was  carried 

8  "The  requisition  was  suffered  in  the  affirmative,  N.  C.  D."    Again. 

to  sleep  on  the  journals."     Gordon,  "  The  assembly  required  power  to 

p.  80.     Now  compare   Votes   and  originate   all   legislative  measures. 

Proceedings,  p.  10.     «  Proposed  to  This   was   conceded."   Gordon,  79. 

the  voice  of  the  house,  whether  the  Such  was  the   issue  ;  but  not  im- 

governor  shall  have  the  power  of  an  mediately.     The    petition    of  the 

overruling  voice  in  the   provincial  house  was  "  for  the  privilege  of  con- 

council  and  in  the  assembly  ;  as  to  ference."    Votes,  &c.  p.  8.     Com- 


THE  FRAME  OF  GOVERNMENT  FOR  PENNSYLVANIA.     389 

council,  and  such  a  power  was  virtually  a  right  to  neg-  CHAP. 
ative  any  law.  It  had  been  more  simple  to  have  left  <-~*~~ 
the  assembly  full  power  to  originate  bills,  and  to  the 
governor  an  unconditional  negative.  This  was  virtually 
the  method  established  in  1683  ;  it  was  distinctly  recog- 
nized in  the  fundamental  law  in  1696.  Besides,  the 
charter  from  Charles  II.  held  the  proprietary  responsi- 
ble for  colonial  legislation  ;  and  no  act  of  provincial 
legislation  could  be  perfected  till  it  had  passed  the 
great  seal  of  the  province.  That  a  negative  voice  was 
thus  reserved  to  William  Penn,  was,  I  believe,  the 
opinion  of  the  colonists  of  that  day ; *  such  was  certain- 
ly the  intention  of  the  royal  charter,  and  was  necessary, 
unless  the  proprietary  relation  was  to  cease.  In  other 
respects,  the  frame  of  government  gave  all  power  to  the 
people  ;  the  judges  were  to  be  nominated  by  the  pro- 
vincial council,  and,  in  case  of  good  behavior,  could 
not  be  removed  by  the  proprietary  during  the  term  for 
which  they  were  commissioned.2  But  for  the  hered- 
itary office  of  proprietary,  Pennsylvania  had  been  a 
representative  democracy.  In  Maryland,  the  council 
was  named  by  Lord  Baltimore  ;  in  Pennsylvania,  by 
the  people.  In  Maryland,  the  power  of  appointing 
magistrates,  and  all,  even  the  subordinate  executive 
officers,  rested  solely  with  the  proprietary;3  in  Penn- 
sylvania, William  Penn  could  not  appoint  a  justice  or  a 
constable  ;  every  executive  officer,  except  the  highest, 

pare,  too,  Council  Books,  in  Hazard's  xvi.     Proud,  ii.  App.  13,  25.    The 

Register,  i.  16,  for  March  15,  1683.  writer  in  Am.  Q.  Rev.  v.  416,  inter 

The   chamber  of  deputies   under  prets  the  new  clause   absolutely  , 

Louis  XVIII.    could    petition   the  and,   according  to  modern  use  of 

king  to  introduce  a  bill.     Practical-  language,  correctly.     Penn  and  the 

ly,  the  house  gained  the  initiative,  council  did  not.     Witness  the  com- 

and  Penn  the  negative  voice.  mission  to  the  judges,  in  Proud  i. 

1  Votes,   &c.    p.  21.    "  Recom-  287:    "This  commission  to  be  in 

mended  to  the  great  seal."  force  during  two  years" 

3  Compare  First  Charter,  section  3  McMahon,  156. 
cvii.,  with  Second  Charter,  section 


390     THE  FRAME  OF  GOVERNMENT  FOR  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAP,  was  elected  by  the  people  or  their  representatives ;  and 
— v*~  the  governor  could  perform  no  public  act,  but  with  the 
consent  of  the  council.  Lord  Baltimore  had  a  revenue 
derived  from  the  export  of  tobacco,  the  staple  of  Mary- 
land ;  and  his  colony  was  burdened  with  taxes :  a  similar 
revenue  was  offered  to  William  Penn,  and  declined  , ' 
and  tax-gatherers  were  unknown  in  his  province. 

In  the  name  of  all  the  freemen  of  the  province,  the 
charter  was  received  by  the  assembly  with  gratitude, 
as  one  "of  more  than  expected  liberty."5  "  I  desired," 
says  Penn,  "  to  show  men  as  free  and  as  happy  as  they 
can  be."3  In  the  decline  of  life,  the  language  of  his 
1710  heart  was  still  the  same.  "  If,  in  the  relation  between 
us,"  he  writes  in  his  old  age,  "  the  people  want  of  me 
any  thing  that  would  make  them  happier,  I  should 
readily  grant  it."4 

When  Peter,  the  great  Russian  reformer,  attended 
in  England  a  meeting  of  Quakers,  the  semibarbarous 
philanthropist  could  not  but  exclaim,  "  How  happy 
must  be  a  community  instituted  on  their  principles ! " 
"  Beautiful ! "  said  the  philosophic  Frederic  of  Prussia, 
when,  a  hundred  years  later,  he  read  the  account  of  the 
government  of  Pennsylvania ;  "  it  is  perfect,  if  it  can 
endure."5  To  the  charter  which  Locke  invented  for 
Carolina,  the  palatines  voted  an  immutable  immor- 
tality ;  and  it  never  gained  more  than  a  short,  partial 
existence  :  to  the  people  of  his  province  Penn  left  it 
free  to  subvert  or  alter  the  frame  of  government ;  and 
its  essential  principles  remain  to  this  day  without 
change. 

Such  was  the  birth  of  popular  power  in  Pennsyl- 

1  Penn  to  a  society  of  traders.  4  Watson,  29.  Proud,  ii.  45. 

»  Votes,  &c.  21.  5  Herder,  xiii.  116. 

'  Watson,  20. 


TRIAL   FOR  WITCHCRAFT.  391 

vania  and  Delaware.     It  remained   to  dislodge  super-  LHAP. 

XVI. 

stition  from  its  hiding-places  in  the  mind.  The  Scan-  -^^ 
dinavian  emigrants  came  from  their  native  forests  with 
imaginations  clouded  by  the  gloomy  terrors  of  an 
invisible  world  of  fiends;  and  a  turbulent  woman  was  1684. 
brought  to  trial  as  a  witch.  Penn  presided,  and  the  *J*- 
Quakers  on  the  jury  outnumbered  the  Swedes.  The 
grounds  of  the  accusation  were  canvassed  ;  the  wit- 
nesses calmly  examined  ;  and  the  jury,  having  listened 
,0  the  charge  from  the  governor,  returned  this  verdict : 
'  The  prisoner  is  guilty  of  the  common  fame  of  being  a 
»vitch,  but  not  guilty  as  she  stands  indicted."  The 
friends  of  the  liberated  prisoner  were  required  to  give 
bonds,  that  she  should  keep  the  peace ;  and  in  Penn's 
domain,  from  that  day  to  this,  neither  demon  nor  hag 
ever  rode  through  the  air  on  goat  or  broomstick ;  and 
the  worst  arts  of  conjuration  went  no  farther  than  to 
foretell  fortunes,  mutter  powerful  spells  over  quack 
medicines,  or  discover  by  the  divining  rod  the  hidden 
treasures  of  the  bucaniers.1 

Meantime  the  news  spread  abroad,  that  William  1683 
Penn,  the  Quaker,  had  opened  "  an  asylum  to  the  good  *° 
and  the  oppressed  of  every  nation ; "  and  humanity 
went  through  Europe,  gathering  the  children  of  mis- 
fortune. From  England  and  Wales,2  from  Scotland 
and  Ireland,  and  the  Low  Countries,  emigrants  crowded 
to  the  land  of  promise.  On  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  it 
was  whispered  that  the  plans  of  Gustavus  Adolphus 
and  Oxenstiern  were  consummated  ;  new  companies 
were  formed  under  better  auspices  than  those  of  the 
Swedes ;  and  from  the  highlands  above  Worms,  the 
humble  people  who  had  melted  at  the  eloquence  of 

*  Hazard's  Register,  L  16, 108,  289.  a  Ibid.  vi.  238,  239 


392  RAPID  PROGRESS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

CHAP    Penn,  the  Quaker  emissary,  renounced   their  German 

•-  homes  for  the  protection  of  the  Quaker  king.     There 

is  nothing  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  like  the 
confidence  which  the  simple  virtues  and  institutions  of 
William  Penn  inspired.  The  progress  of  his  province 
was  more  rapid  than  the  progress  of  New  England. 
In  August,  1683,  "Philadelphia  consisted  of  three  or 
four  little  cottages;"1  the  conies  were  yet  undisturbed 
in  their  hereditary  burrows ;  the  deer  fearlessly  bounded 
past  blazed  trees,  unconscious  of  foreboded  streets ; 
the  stranger  that  wandered  from  the  river  bank  was 
lost  in  the  thickets  of  the  interminable  forest ;  and,  two 
years  afterwards,  the  place  contained  about  six  hun- 
dred houses,2  and  the  schoolmaster  and  the  printing- 
press  had  begun  their  work.3  In  three  years  from  its 
foundation,  Philadelphia  gained  more  than  New  York 
had  done  in  half  a  century.  This  was  the  happiest 
season  in  the  public  life  of  William  Penn.  "  I  must, 
1684  without  vanity,  say  " — such  was  his  honest  exultation — 
9"'  "  I  have  led  the  greatest  colony  into  America  that  ever 
any  man  did  upon  a  private  credit,  and  the  most  pros- 
perous beginnings  that  ever  were  in  it,  are  to  be  found 
among  us."4 

The  government  had  been  organized,  peace  with 
the  natives  confirmed,  the  fundamental  law  estab- 
lished, the  courts  of  justice  instituted  ;  the  mission 
of  William  Penn  was  accomplished ;  and  now,  like 
Solon,  the  most  humane  of  ancient  legislators,  he  pre- 
pared to  leave  the  commonwealth,  of  which  he  had 
founded  the  happiness.  Intrusting  the  great  seal  to 
his  friend  Lloyd,  and  the  executive  power  to  a  com- 

1  Pastorius,  in  Watson,  61.  ii.  8,  9.     Council  Records,  in  Proud, 

2  Turner,  in  Watson,  67.  i.  345. 

3  Council  Records,  in  Haz.  Reg.        4  Penn  to   Halifax,  in  Watson, 
L  16.    Thomas,   Hist  of  Printing,  19. 


PENN'S   FAREWELL  TO   HIS   COLONY.  393 

mittee  of  the  council,  Perm  sailed  for  England,  leaving  CHAP 
freedom  to  its  own  development.  His  departure  was  — ^- 
happj  for  the  colony  and  for  his  own  tranquillity.  He  1684. 
had  established  a  democracy,  and  was  himself  a  feudal  12. 
sovereign.  The  two  elements  in  the  government  were 
incompatible  ;  and  for  ninety  years,  the  civil  history  of 
Pennsylvania  is  but  the  account  of  the  jarring  of  these 
opposing  interests,  to  which  there  could  be  no  happy 
issue  but  in  popular  independence.  But  rude  col- 
lisions were  not  yet  begun ;  and  the  benevolence  of 
William  Penn  breathed  to  his  people  a  farewell,  un- 
clouded by  apprehension.  "  My  love  and  my  life  are 
to  you  and  with  you,  and  no  water  can  quench  it,  nor 
distance  bring  it  to  an  end.  I  have  been  with  you, 
cared  over  you,  and  served  you  with  unfeigned  love ; 
and  you  are  beloved  of  me  and  dear  to  me  beyond 
utterance.  I  bless  you  in  the  name  and  power  of  the 
Lord,  and  may  God  bless  you  with  his  righteousness, 
peace,  and  plenty,  all  the  land  over." — "  You  are  come 
to  a  quiet  land,  and  liberty  and  authority  are  in  your 
hands.  Rule  for  Him  under  whom  the  princes  of  this 
world  will  one  day  esteem  it  their  honor  to  govern  in 
their  places." — "  And  thou,  Philadelphia,  the  virgin 
settlement  of  this  province,  my  soul  prays  to  God  for 
thee,  that  thou  mayest  stand  in  the  day  of  trial,  and 
that  thy  children  may  be  blessed."— -"Dear  friends, 
my  love  salutes  you  all." 

And  after  he  reached  England,  he  assured  the  eager  Octa 
inquirers,  that  "  things  went  on  sweetly  with  Friends 
in  Pennsylvania ;  that  they  increased  finely  in  outward 
things  and  in  wisdom." 

The  question  respecting  the  boundaries  between  the 
domains  of  Lord  Baltimore  and  of  William  Penn  was 

Dec 

promptly  resumed  before  the  committee  of  trade  and     9. 
VOL.  n.  50 


394  MASON   AND   DIXON's   LINE — PENN's   BOUND AEY. 

°x  viP'  Potations ;  and,  after  many  hearings,  it  was  decided, 
— , —  that  the  tract  of  Delaware  did  not  constitute  a  part 

1  fi  ft  ^ 

Oct. '  of  Maryland.    The  proper  boundaries  of  the  territory 

jJov.    remained  to  be  settled;  and  the  present  limits   of 

7-     Delaware  were  established  by  a  compromise.     There 

is  no  reason  to  suppose  any  undue  bias  on  the  minds 

of  the  committee  ;  had  a  wrong  been  suspected,  the 

decision  would  have  been  reversed  at  the  revolution 

of  1688. 

This  decision  formed  the  basis  of  an  agreement 
between  the  respective  heirs  of  the  two  proprietaries 
in  IT 32.  Three  years  afterwards  the  subject  became 
a  question  in  chancery ;  in  1750,  the  present  boun- 
daries were  decreed  by  Lord  Hardwicke ;  ten  years 
later,  they  were,  by  agreement,  more  accurately  de- 
fined; and  in  1761,  commissioners  began  to  designate 
the  limit  of  Maryland  on  the  side  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Delaware.  In  1763,  Charles  Mason  and  Jeremiah 
Dixon,  two  mathematicians  or  surveyors,  were  engaged 
to  mark  the  lines.  In  1764  they  entered  upon  their 
task,  with  good  instruments  and  a  corps  of  axemen ; 
by  the  middle  of  June,  1765,  they  had  traced  the 
parallel  of  latitude  to  the  Susquehannah ;  a  year  later 
they  climbed  the  little  Alleghany;  in  1767  they  car- 
ried forward  their  work  under  an  escort  from  the  Six 
Nations,  to  an  Indian  war-path,  two  hundred  and  forty- 
four  miles  from  the  Delaware  river.  Other  hands,  at 
a  later  day,  continued  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  to  the 
West,  as  the  Southern  boundary  of  Pennsylvania.1 

But  the  care  of  colonial  property  did  not  absorb  the 
enthusiasm  of  Penn ;  and,  now  that  his  father's  friend 

1  John  H.  Latrobe's  History  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line. 


PENN  ADVOCATES  ENGLISH  FREEDOM.  395 

had  succeeded  to  the  throne,  he  employed  his  fortune,  CHAP 
his  influence,  and  his  fame,  to  secure  that  "  IMPARTIAL"  — -*^*- 
liberty  of  conscience,  which,  for  nearly  twenty  years,1 
he  had  advocated,  with  Buckingham  and  Arlington, 
before  the  magistrates  of  Ireland,  and  English  juries,  in 
the  tower,  in  Newgate,  before  the  commons  of  Eng- 
land, in  public  discussions  with  Baxter  and  the  Pres- 
byterians, before  Quaker  meetings,  at  Chester  and 
Philadelphia,  and  through  the  press  to  the  world.  It 
was  his  old  post — the  office  to  which  he  was  faithful 
from  youth  to  age.  Fifteen  thousand  families  had  been 
ruined  for  dissent  since  the  restoration  ;  five  thousand 
persons  had  died  victims  to  imprisonment.  The  mon- 
arch was  persuaded  to  exercise  his  prerogative  of 
mercy;  and  at  Penn's  intercession,  not  less  that  twelve  1686 
hundred  Friends  were  liberated  from  the  horrible  dun- 
geons and  prisons  where  many  of  them  had  languished 
hopelessly  for  years.  Penn  delighted  in  doing  good. 
His  house  was  thronged  by  swarms  of  clients,  envoys 
from  Massachusetts2  among  the  number;  and  some- 
times there  were  two  hundred  at  once,  claiming  his 
disinterested  good  offices  with  the  king.  For  Locke, 
then  a  voluntary  exile,  and  the  firm  friend  of  intellectual 
freedom,  he  obtained  a  promise  of  immunity,3  which  the 
blameless  philosopher,  in  the  just  pride  of  innocence, 
refused.  And  at  the  very  time  when  the  Roman 
Catholic  Fenelon,  in  France,  was  pleading  for  Prot- 

1  Penn,  in  Proud,  i.325.   So  Penn,  consist  in  absolute  skepticism  as  to 

in    his  autograph    Apology.     This  exalted  worth, 

was  communicated  to  me  in  MS.  2  Lambeth  MSS.,  communicated 

by   J.    F.    Fisher,  who  has  since  by  Francis  L.  Hawks, 

caused  it  to   be   printed.     It  is  a  3  Mackintosh,   p.  289.    Am.  ed. 

most  honorable  office  to  do  justice  refers  to  Clarkson.      The  original 

to  the  illustrious  dead.     My  friend  authority  for  the  fact  is  Le  Clerc, 

writes  of  Penn  with  affectionate  in-  from  whom  it  passed  into  the  Bio- 

terest,  and  yet  with  careful  criti-  graphia  Britannica. 
cism.      True    criticism     does    not 


396  PENJN   ADVOCATES  ENGLISH  FREEDOM. 

CHAP,  estants  against  the  intolerance   of  Louis   XIV.     the 

Protestant  Penn,  in  England,  was  laboring  to  rescue 

the  Roman  Catholics  from  the  jealousy  of  the  English 
aristocracy.  Claiming  for  the  executive  of  the  country 
the  prerogative  of  employing  every  person,  "  according 
to  his  ability,  and  not  according  to  his  opinion,"  he 
labored  to  effect  a  repeal  of  every  disfranchisement  for 
opinion.  Always  a  friend  to  liberty  as  established  by 
law,  ever  ready  to  deepen  the  vestiges  of  British  free 
dom,  and  vindicate  the  right  of  "  the  free  Saxon  people 
to  be  governed  by  laws  of  which  they  themselves  were 
the  makers,"1  his  whole  soul  was  bent  on  effecting 
this  end  by  means  of  parliament  during  the  reign  of 
James  II.,  well  knowing  that  the  prince  of  Orange 
was  pledged  to  a  less  liberal  policy.  The  political 
tracts  of  "  the  arch  Quaker "  have  the  calm  wisdom 
and  the  universality  of  Lord  Bacon  ;  in  behalf  of  liberty 
of  conscience,  they  beautifully  connect  the  immutable 
principles  of  human  nature  and  human  rights  with  the 
character  and  origin  of  English  freedom,  and  exhaust 
the  question  as  a  subject  for  English  legislation.  Penn 
resisted  the  tyrannical  proceedings  against  Magdalen 
College,  and  yet  desired  that  the  universities  might  not 
be  altogether  shut  against  dissenters.  No  man  in 
England  was  more  opposed  to  Roman  Catholic  do- 
minion ;  but,  like  an  honest  lover  of  truth,  and  well 
aware  that  he  and  George  Fox  could  win  more  con- 
verts than  James  II.  and  the  pope  with  all  their 
patronage,  he  desired,  in  the  controversy  with  the  Ro- 
man church,  nothing  but  equality.  He  knew  that 
Popery  was  in  England  the  party  of  the  past,  from 
causes  that  lay  in  the  heart  of  society,  incapable  of  res- 
toration ;  and  therefore  he  ridiculed  the  Popish  panic  as 

i  Penn,  iii.  220,  and  273,  274. 


PENN  ADVOCATES  ENGLISH  FREEDOM.  397 

a  scarecrow  fit  only  to  frighten  children.1     Such  was  CHAR 

XVI 

the  strong  antipathy  of  England  to  the  Roman  see,  he  ~~<~~ 
foretold  the  sure  success  of  the  English  church,  if  it 
should  plough  with  that  heifer,  but  equally  predicted 
the  still  later  result,  that  the  Catholics,  in  their  turn 
becoming  champions  of  civil  freedom,  would  unite  with 
its  other  advocates,  and  impair  and  subvert  the  English 
hierarchy.2  Penn  never  gave  counsel  at  variance  with 
popular  rights.  He  resisted  the  commitment  of  the 
bishops  to  the  tower,  and,  on  the  day  of  the  birth  of 
the  prince  of  Wales,  pressed  the  king  exceedingly  to 
set  them  at  liberty.3  His  private  correspondence 
proves  that  he  esteemed  parliament4  the  only  power 
through  which  his  end  could  be  gained ;  and,  in  the 
true  spirit  of  popular  liberty,  he  sought  to  infuse  his 
principles  into  the  popular  mind,  that  so  they  might  find 
their  place  in  the  statute-book  through  the  free  convic- 
tions of  his  countrymen.  England  to-day  confesses  his 
sagacity,  and  is  doing  honor  to  his  genius.  He  came  too 
soon  for  success,  and  he  was  aware  of  it.  After  more 
than  a  century,  the  laws  which  he  reproved  began  grad- 
ually to  be  repealed ;  and  the  principle  which  he  de- 
veloped, sure  of  immortality,  is  slowly  but  firmly  as- 
serting its  power  over  the  legislation  of  Great  Britain. 

1  Penn,  ii.  580.     Penn  knew  the  nson,  in    Proud,  i.   308.      Burnet 
secret  motive. — "  Time,  that  informs  says  Penn  promised,  on  behalf  of 
children,  will   tell  the    world    the  King  James,  an  assent  to  a  solemn 
meaning  of  the  fright"  and  unalterable  law.     The  whole 

2  Ibid.  575 — 578.  mission  to  the  prince  of  Orange  is 

3  "  This  excellent  man  lent  him-  based  upon  an  intended  action  of 
self  to  the  measures  of  the  king."  parliament.     Burnet,  ii.  395,  396. 
Mackintosh,  290.     Thus  the  mod-  Compare   Penn,   in  Proud,  i.  325. 
ern.     Now  the    contemporary   au-  The  "  Good  Advice  to  the  Church 
thority   in    Mr.   Lawton's    Memoir  of  England,"  Penn,  ii.,  is  an  argu- 
of  William  Penn,  in  Mem.  P.  H.  S.  ment  for  the  repeal  of  the   penal 
iii.  P.  ii.  p.  230,  231.     "  Penn  was  laws  and  tests.     What  better  mode 
against  the  commitment  of  the  bish-  than  to  reach  the  legislature  through 
ops." — "  He  pressed  the  king  ex-  an  address  to  the  public  ?  Compare 
ceedingly  to  set  them  at  liberty."  Penn's  own  Apology,  in  Mem.  P.  H. 

4  "  I   should    rejoice   to  see  the  S.  iii.  P.  ii.,  and  letter  to  Shrew* 
penal  laws  repealed."  Penn  to  Har-  bury,  in  The  Friend,  vi.  194. 


398  WILLIAM   PENN'S  FAME  AND  FORTUNES. 

CHAP       The  political  connections  of  William  Penn  have  in- 

XVI. 

— ~ *--  volved  him  in  the  obloquy  which  followed  the  overthrow 
of  the  Stuarts ;  and  the  friends  to  the  tests,  comprising 
nearly  all  the  members  of  both  the  political  parties, 
into  which  England  was  soon  divided,  have  generally 
been  unfriendly  to  his  good  name.  But  their  malice 
has  been  without  permanent  effect.  There  are  not 
wanting  those  who  believe  the  many  to  be  the  most 
competent  judge  of  the  beautiful ;  every  Quaker  be- 
lieves them  the  best  arbiter  of  the  just  and  the  true. 
It  is  certain  that  they,  and  they  only,  are  the  dispensers 
of  glory.  Their  final  award  is  given  freely,  and  cannot 
be  shaken.  Every  charge  of  hypocrisy,  of  selfishness, 
of  vanity,  of  dissimulation,  of  credulous  confidence; 
every  form  of  reproach,  from  virulent  abuse  to  cold 
apology;1  every  ill  name,  from  tory  and  Jesuit  to  blas- 
phemer and  infidel, — has  been  used  against  Penn  ;  but 
the  candor  of  his  character  always  triumphed  over 
calumny.  His  name  was  safely  cherished  as  a  house- 
hold word  in  the  cottages  of  Wales  and  Ireland,  and 
among  the  peasantry  of  Germany ;  and  not  a  tenant 
of  a  wigwam  from  the  sea  to  the  Susquehannah  doubted 
his  integrity.  His  fame  is  now  wide  as  the  world  ;  he 
is  one  of  the  few  who  have  gained  abiding  glory. 

Was  he  prospered  ?  Before  engaging  in  his  Ameri- 
can enterprise,  he  had  impaired  his  patrimony  to  relieve 
the  suffering  Quakers ;  his  zeal  for  his  provinces  hurried 
him  into  colonial  expenses  beyond  the  returns  ;  his  phi- 
lanthropy, establishing  popular  power,  left  him  without  a 
revenue ;  and  he  who  had  so  often  been  imprisoned  for 
religion,  in  his  old  age  went  to  jail  for  debt.  But  what 
is  so  terrible  as  remorse  ?  what  so  soothing  as  an  ap- 
proving conscience  ?  William  Penn  was  happy.  "  He 

i  Mackintosh,  Hist  of  Rev.  290.  Am.  ed. 


PENNSYLVANIA   LEGISLATION.  399 

could  say  it  before  the  Lord,  he  had  the  comfort  of  CHAP 

XVI. 

having  approved  himself  a  faithful  steward  to  his  un-  — ~ v^L. 
derstanding  and  ability."1 

Meanwhile  the  Quaker  legislators  in  the  woods  of 
Pennsylvania  were   serving  their  novitiate  in  popular 
legislation.      To  complain,   to   impeach,    to   institute 
committees  of  inquiry,  to  send  for  persons  and  papers, 
to  quarrel  with  the  executive, — all  was  attempted,  and 
all  without   permanent   harm.     But  the  character  of 
parties  was  already  evident;  and  the  people,  with  an 
irresistible  propension,  tended  towards  the  fixed  design 
of  impairing  the  revenues,   and  diminishing  the  little 
remaining  authority,  of  their  feudal  sovereign.2     Penn 
had  reserved  large  tracts  of  territory  as  his  private  prop- 
erty ;  he  alone  could  purchase  the  soil  from  the  natives ; 
and  he  reserved  quitrents  on  the  lands  which  he  sold. 
Pennsylvania,  for  nearly  a  century,  sought  to  impair  the 
exclusive  right  to  preemption,  and  to  compel  an  appro 
priation  of  the  income  from  quitrents,  in  part  at  least,  to 
the  public  service.     Colonial  jealousy  of  a  feudal  chief 
was  early  and  perseveringly  displayed.     The  maker  of  1035 
the  first  Pennsylvania  almanac  was  censured  for  pub-  Jan>9 
lishing  Penn    as    a  lord.3      The    assembly  originated  1685 
bills  without   scruple ;  they  attempted  a  new  organi- 
zation of  the  judiciary  ;  they  alarmed  the  merchants 
by    their    lenity    towards   debtors ;    they  would    vote 
no  taxes;    they  claimed  the  right   of  inspecting  the  1686 
records,  and  displacing  the  officers  of  the  courts  ;  they     15° 
expelled  a  member  who  reminded  them  of  their  contra- 

1  Penn,  in  Proud,  i.  291.  work  is  not  truth,  but  victory.    Its 

2  The  Historical  Review,  attrib-  historic   matter  is  better  found  in 
uted  to  Franklin,  and  much  cited  the   original   documents   which  he 
by  Uie  enemies  of  Perm's  fame,  is  quotes.     Tyson's  judgment  on  it  is 
an  uncandid,  ex  parte,  political  ar-  correct 

gument.    The  author's  aim  in  the        3  Hazard's  Register,  i.  16. 


400  INDIAN  ALARM. 

CHAP   vening  the  provisions  of  their  charter.1     The  executive 

power  was  also  imperfectly  administered  ;  for  the  whole 

council  was  too  numerous  a  body  for  its  regular  exer- 
1687.  cise.  A  commission  of  five  was  substituted  ;2  and 
''  finally,  when  it  was  resolved  to  appoint  a  deputy- gov- 
ernor,' the  choice  of  the  proprietary  was  not  wisely 
made.  In  a  word,  folly  and  passion,  not  less  than 
justice  and  wisdom,  had  become  enfranchised  on  the 
Delaware,  and  were  desperately  bent  on  the  exercise 
of  their  privileges.  Free  scope  was  opened  to  every 
whim  that  enthusiasts  might  propose  as  oracles  from 
the  skies,  to  every  selfish  desire  that  could  lurk  under 
the  Quaker  garb.  But  the  smiling  light  of  prosperity 
rose  serenely  over  the  little  clouds  of  discontent,  and 
the  swelling  passions  of  the  young  apprentices  at  legis- 
lation died  away  at  the  adjournments.4  To  freedom 
and  justice  a  fair  field  was  given,  and  they  were  safe.5 
Peace  also  was  uninterrupted.  Once,  indeed,  it  was 
rumored,  that  on  the  Brandywine  five  hundred  Indians 
were  assembled  to  concert  a  massacre.  Immediately 
Caleb  Pusey,  with  five  Friends,  hastened  unarmed  to 
the  scene  of  anticipated  danger.  The  sachem  repelled 
the  calumnious  report  with  indignation ;  and  the  little 
griefs  of  the  tribe  were  canvassed  and  assuaged. 
"  The  great  God,  who  made  all  mankind,  extends  his 
love  to  Indians  and  English.  The  rain  and  the  dews 
fall  alike  on  the  ground  of  both ;  the  sun  shines  on  us 
equally ;  and  we  ought  to  love  one  another."  Such 

1  Votes     and    Proceedings,   32,    cil,"  March  19,  1688,  passed  unan 
&c  imously. 

2  Doc.  in  Proud,  i.  305.  5  Tyson's  censure  on  Chalmers 
8  Hazard's    Register,    iii.     104,    and  others,  in  Mem.  P.  H.  S.  ii. 

105 ;  i.  443.  Part  ii.  p.  140,  141,  is  to  my  mind 

4  Votes  and  Proceedings,  35,  36,  strictly  just    It  is  the  language  of 

and   47.    "  Thankful   acknowledg-  accurate  investigation.     The  whole 

ment  of  kindness  of  God,  and  coun-  "  Examination  "  is  a  manly  paper. 


OPINIONS   O2T   NEGEO   SLAVEEY.  401 

was  the  diplomacy  of  the  Quaker  envoy.     The  king  CHAP. 
of  the  Delawares  answered,  "  What  you  say  is  true.    XVL 
Go  home,  and  harvest  the  corn  God  has  given  you.  1688. 
We  intend  you  no  harm." 

The  white  man  agreed  with  the  red  man  to  love  one 
another.  Would  he  love  the  negro  also,  and  refuse 
homage  from  the  African  ?  William  Penn  employed 
blacks  without  scruple.  The  free  Society  of  Traders, 
which  he  chartered  and  encouraged,  in  its  first  public 
agreement1  relating  to  them,  did  but  substitute,  after 
fourteen  years'  service,  the  severe  condition  of  ad- 
scripts to  the  soil,  for  that  of  slaves.  At  a  later  day, 
he  endeavored  to  secure  to  the  African  mental  and 
moral  culture,  the  rights  and  happiness  of  domestic 
life.  His  efforts  were  not  successful,  and  he  himself 
died  a  slave-holder.2  On  the  subject  of  negro  slavery, 
the  German  mind  was  least  enthralled  by  prejudice, 
because  Germany  had  never  yet  participated  in  the 
slave-trade.  The  Swedish  and  German  colony  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  was  designed  to  rest  on  free  labor. 
If  the  general  meeting  of  the  Quakers  for  a  season  for- 
bore a  positive  judgment,  already,  in  1688,  "the  poor 
hearts"  from  Kirchheim,  "the  little  handful"  of  Ger- 
man Friends  from  the  highlands  above  the  Rhine, 
came  to  the  resolution  that  it  was  not  lawful  for 
Christians  to  buy  or  to  keep  negro  slaves.8 

This  decision  of  the  German  emigrants  on  negro 
slavery,  was  taken  during  the  lifetime  of  George  Fox, 
who  recognized  no  distinction  of  race.  "Let  your 
light  shine  among  the  Indians,  the  blacks,  and  the 

1  The  Articles,  Settlement,  and  ye  nth  3  mo.  1721.— "Thepropri- 

Offices  of  the  Free  Society  of  Trad-  etor,  in  a  will,  left  with  me  at  his 

ers,  in  Pennsylvania ;  Article  xviii.  departure  hence,  gave  all  his  Ne- 

Ha/ard's  Register,  i.  395.  groes  their  freedom,"  &c.  &c.  &c. 

8  Extract  of  a  letter  from  James  *  Perm's  Works,  ii.  439.  Bettlein 

Logan  to  Mrs.  Hannah  Penn,  &c.  Memoirs  of  Penn.  Hist.  Soc.  i.  365. 

VOL.  n.  51 


402  DEATH  OF   GEORGE  FOX. 

CHAP,  whites,"  was  his  message  to  Quakers  on  the  Dela 
— v^L  ware.  His  heart  was  with  the  settlements  of  which 
he  had  been  the  pioneer ;  and,  a  few  weeks  before  his 
death,  he  exhorted  Friends  in  America  to  be  the  light 
of  the  world,  the  salt  to  preserve  earth  from  corrup- 
tion. Covetousness,  he  adds,  is  idolatry;  and  he  bids 
them  beware  of  that  "  idol  for  which  so  many  lose 
morality  and  humanity." 

169]  On  his  death-bed,  the  venerable  apostle  of  equality 
13.  was  lifted  above  the  fear  of  dying,  and,  esteeming  the 
change  hardly  deserving  of  mention,  his  thoughts  turned 
to  the  New  World.  Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware,  and 
West  New  Jersey,  and  now  Rhode  Island,  and  in  some 
measure  North  Carolina,  were  Quaker  states  ;  as  his 
spirit,  awakening  from  its  converse  with  shadows, 
escaped  from  the  exile  of  fallen  humanity,  nearly  his 
last  words  were — "  Mind  poor  Friends  in  America." 
His  works  praise  him.  Neither  time  nor  place  can 
dissolve  fellowship  with  his  spirit.  To  his  name  Wil- 
liam Penn  left  this  short  epitaph — "  Many  sons  have 
done  virtuously  in  this  day ;  but,  dear  GEORGE,  thou 

excellest  them  all." 

/ 

Were  his  principles  thus  excellent?  An  opposite 
system  was  developed  in  the  dominions  of  the  duke 
of  York 


403 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

JAMES  II.  CONSOLIDATES  THE  NORTHERN  COLONIES. 

THE  country  which,  after  the  reconquest  of  the  New  CHA? 
Netherlands,  was  again  conveyed  to  the  duke  of  York,  -^-^ 

included  the  New  England  frontier  from  the   Kenne-  1674 
e  June 

bee  to    the  Saint    Croix,    extended    continuously    to    29. 
Connecticut  River,  and  was  bounded  on  the  south  by 
Maryland.     We  have  now  to  trace  an  attempt  to  con- 
solidate the  whole  coast  north  of  the  Delaware. 

The  charter  from  the  king  sanctioned  whatever 
ordinances  the  duke  of  York  or  his  assigns  might  estab- 
lish ;  and  in  regard  to  justice,  revenue,  and  legislation, 
Edmund  Andros,  the  governor,  was  left  responsible 
only  to  his  own  conscience  and  his  employer.  He  was 
instructed  to  display  all  the  humanity  and  gentleness 
that  could  consist  with  arbitrary  power  ;  and  to  use 
punishments  not  from  wilful  cruelty,  but  as  an  instru- 
ment of  terfor.  On  the  last  day  of  October,  he  received 
the  surrender  of  the  colony  from  the  representatives  of 
the  Dutch,  and  renewed  the  absolute  authority  of  the 
proprietary.  The  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  part  of 
Long  Island  resolved,  in  town-meetings,  to  adhere  to 
Connecticut.  The  charter  certainly  did  not  counte- 
nance their  decision ;  and,  unwilling  to  be  declared 
rebels,  they  submitted  to  New  York. 

In  the  following  summer,  Andros,  with  armed  sloops, 
proceeded  to  Connecticut  to  vindicate  his  jurisdiction 


404  ANDROS  INVADES  THE  LIBERTIES  OF  CONNECTICUT. 

CHAP,  as  far  as  the  river.     On  the  first  alarm.  William  Leet. 

XVII 

-*v-~  the  aged  deputy-governor,  one  of  the  first  seven  pillars 

1675  of  the  church  of  Guilford,  educated  in  England  as  a 
lawyer,  a  rigid  republican,  hospitable  even  to  regicides, 

July  convened  the  assembly.  A  proclamation  was  unani- 
'  mously  voted,  and  forwarded  by  express  to  Bull,  the 
captain  of  the  company  on  whose  firmness  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  little  colony  rested.  It  arrived  just  as 
11.  Andros,  hoisting  the  king's  flag,  demanded  the  sur- 
render of  Saybrook  Fort.  Immediately  the  English 
colors  were  raised  within  the  fortress.  Despairing  of 
victory,  Andros  attempted  persuasion.  Having  been 
allowed  to  land  with  his  personal  retinue,  he  assumed 
authority,  and  in  the  king's  name  ordered  the  duke's 
patent,  with  his  own  commission,  to  be  read.  In  the 
king's  name,  he  was  commanded  to  desist ;  and  Andros 
was  overawed  by  the  fishermen  and  farmers  who 
formed  the  colonial  troops.  Their  proclamation  he 
called  a  slender  affair,  and  an  ill  requital  for  his  in- 
tended kindness.  The  Saybrook  militia,  escorting  him 
to  his  boat,  saw  him  sail  for  Long  Island ;  and  Con- 
necticut, resenting  the  aggression,  made  a  declaration 
of  its  wrongs,  sealed  it  with  its  seal,  and  transmitted 
it  to  the  neighboring  plantations. 

1676  In  New  York  itself  Andros  was  hardly  more  wel- 
come than  at  Saybrook ;  for  the  obedient  servant  of 
the  duke  of  York  discouraged  every  mention  of  assem 
blies,  and  levied  customs  without  the  consent  of  the 
people.    But,  since  the  Puritans  of  Long  Island  claimed 
a  representative  government  as  an  inalienable  English 
birthright,    and    the   whole    population    opposed    the 
ruling  system  as  a  tyranny,  the  governor,   who  was 
personally  free    from  vicious  dispositions,   advised  his 
master  to  concede  legislative  franchises. 


CHARACTER   OF   JAMES  II.  405 

The  dull  James   II..   then  duke  of  York,  of  a  fair  CHAP. 

XVII. 

complexion  and  an  athletic  frame,  was  patient  in  de-  ~~^ 
tails,  yet  singularly  blind  to  universal  principles,  plod-  ]fi76 
ding  with  sluggish  diligence,  but  unable  to  conform 
conduct  to  a  general  rule.  Within  narrow  limits  he 
reasoned  correctly ;  but  his  vision  did  not  extend  far. 
Without  sympathy  for  the  crowd,  he  had  no  discern- 
ment of  character,  and  was  the  easy  victim  of  duplicity 
and  intrigue.  His  loyalty  was  but  devotion  to  the 
prerogative  which  he  hoped  to  inherit.  Brave  in  the 
face  of  expected  dangers,  an  unforeseen  emergency 
found  him  pusillanimously  helpless.  He  kept  his  word 
sacredly,  unless  it  involved  complicated  relations,  which 
he  could  scarcely  comprehend.  Spiritual  religion  is  an 
enfranchising  power,  expanding  and  elevating  the  soul , 
a  service  of  forms  was  analogous  to  the  understanding 
of  James ;  to  attend  mass,  to  build  chapels,  to  risk  the 
kingdom  for  a  rosary, — this  was  within  his  grasp ;  he 
had  no  clear  perception  of  religious  truth.  Freedom 
of  conscience,  always  an  ennobling  conception,  was,  in 
that  age,  an.  idea  yet  standing  on  the  threshold  of  the 
world,  waiting  to  be  ushered  in  ;  and  none  but  exalted 
minds — Roger  Williams  and  Penn,  Vane,  Fox,  and  Bun-  1677 
yan — went  forth  to  welcome  it ;  no  glimpse  of  it  reach- 
ed James,  whose  selfish  policy,  unable  to  gain  immediate 
dominion  for  his  persecuted  priests  and  his  confessor, 
begged  at  least  for  toleration.  Debauching  a  woman 
on  promise  of  marriage,  he  next  allowed  her  to  be  tra- 
duced as  having  yielded  to  frequent  prostitution,  and 
then  married  her ;  he  was  conscientious,  but  his 
moral  sense  was  as  slow  as  his  understanding.  He 
was  not  bloodthirsty  ;  but  to  a  narrow  mind  fear  seems 
the  most  powerful  instrument  of  government,  and  he 
propped  his  throne  with  the  block  and  the  gallows. 


JAMES  II.  AND  COLONIAL  LIBERTIES. 

CHAP.  A  libertine  without  love,  a  devotee  without  spirituality, 

XVII. 

-"— '  an  advocate  of  toleration  without  a  sense  of  the  natural 
right  to  freedom  of  conscience, — in  him  the  muscular 
force  prevailed  over  the  intellectual.  He  floated  be- 
tween the  sensuality  of  indulgence  and  the  sensuality 
of  superstition,  hazarding  heaven  for  an  ugly  mistress, 
and,  to  the  great  delight  of  abbots  and  nuns,  winning  it 
back  again  by  pricking  his  flesh  with  sharp  points  of 

jtm«£f  iron'  and  eating  no  meat  on  Saturdays.  Of  the  two 
'  brothers,  the  duke  of  Buckingham  said  well,  that 

Bumet  Charles  would  not,  and  James  could  not  see.     James 

1677.  Put  hi§  whole  character  into  his  reply  to  Andros,  which 

Jan.  1.  js  as  follows  : 

"  I  cannot  but  suspect  assemblies  would  be  of  dan- 
gerous consequence  ;  nothing  being  more  known  than 
the  aptness  of  such  bodies  to  assume  to  themselves 
many  privileges,  which  prove  destructive  to,  or  very 
often  disturb,  the  peace  of  government,  when  they  are 
allowed.  Neither  do  I  see  any  use  for  them.  Things 
that  need  redress  may  be  sure  of  finding  it  at  the  quar- 
ter sessions,  or  by  the  legal  and  ordinary  ways,  or,  last- 
ly, by  appeals  to  myself.  However,  I  shall  be  ready 
to  consider  of  any  proposal  you  shall  send." 

In  November,  some  months  after  the  province  of 

Sagadahock,  that  is,  Maine  beyond  the  Kennebec,  had 

been  protected  by  a  fort  and  a  considerable  garrison,  An- 

Nov.  dros  hastened  to  England  ;  but  he  could  not  give  eyes 

1G78  to  the  duke  ;  and,  on  his  return,  he  was  ordered  to  con- 
tinue the  duties,  which,  at  the  surrender,  had  been 

1679.  established  for  three  years.  In  the  next  year,  the  rev- 
enue was  a  little  increased.  Meantime  the  Dutch 
Calvinists  had  been  inflamed  by  an  attempt  to  thwart 
ihe  discipline  of  the  Duteh  Reformed  church.  Yet  it 
should  be  added,  that  the  ta\f«?  were  hardly  three  per 


JAMES  II.   AND   COLONIAL   LIBERTIES.  40? 

cent,  on  imports,  and  really  insufficient  to  meet  the  ex  CHAP 
penses  of  the  colony ;  while  the  claim  to  exercise  pre-  ^^ 
rogative  in  the  church  was  abandoned.  As  in  the  days  1678 
of  Lovelace,  the  province  was  "  a  terrestrial  Canaan. 
The  inhabitants  were  blessed  in  their  basket  and  their 
store.  They  were  free  from  pride ;  and  a  wagon  gave 
as  good  content  as  in  Europe  a  coach ;  their  home-made 
cloth  as  the  finest  lawns.  The  doors  of  the  low-roofed 
houses,  which  luxury  never  entered,  stood  wide  open  to 
charity,  and  to  the  stranger."1  The  Island  of  New 
York  may,  in  1678,  have  contained  not  far  from  three 
thousand  inhabitants  ;  in  the  whole  colony  there  could 
not  have  been  far  from  twenty  thousand.  Ministers 
were  scarce,  but  welcome,  and  religions  many;  the  poor 
were  relieved,  and  beggars  unknown.  A  thousand 
pounds  were  opulence ;  the  possessor  of  half  that 
sum  was  rich.  The  exports  were  land  productions — 
wheat,  lumber,  tobacco — and  peltry  from  the  Indians. 
In  the  community,  composed  essentially  of  farmers, 
great  equality  of  condition  prevailed  ;  there  were  but 
"  few  merchants,"  "  few  servants,  and  very  few 
slaves." 

What  was  wanting  to  the  happiness  of  the  people  ? 
Prompted  by  an  exalted  instinct,  they  demanded  power 
to  govern  themselves.     Discontent  created  a  popular  16gl 
convention ;  and  if  the  two  Platts,  Titus,  Wood,  and     asf 
Wicks  of  Huntington,  arbitrarily  summoned  to  New 
York,  were  still  more  arbitrarily  thrown  into  prison, 
the  fixed  purpose  of  the  yeomanry  remained  unshaken. 

The  government  of  New  York  was  quietly  main- 
tained over  the  settlements  south  and  west  of  the 
Delaware,  till  they  were  granted  to  Penn ;  over  the 

1  Denton's  New  York,  printed  in    government,  p.  19  and  20.    Androa, 
1670,  describes  it  under  the  duke's    in  Chalmers,  601,  &c. 


4-08  PROGRESS  OF  EAST  NEW  JERSEY. 

CHAP.  Jerseys  Andros  claimed  a  paramount  authority.     We 

have  seen  the  Quakers  refer  the  contest  for  decision  to 

an  English  commission. 

1675.  In  East  New  Jersey,  Philip  Carteret  had,  as  the 
deputy  of  Sir  George,  resumed  the  government,  and, 
gaining  popularity  by  postponing  the  payment  of  quit- 
rents,  confirmed  liberty  of  conscience  with  represent- 
ative government.  A  direct  trade  with  England, 
unencumbered  by  customs,  was  encouraged.  The 
commerce  of  New  York  was  endangered  by  the  com- 
petition ;  and,  disregarding  a  second  patent  from  the 

i678.  duke  of  York,  Andros  claimed  that  the  ships  of  New 
Oct. 
10.    Jersey  should  pay  tribute  at  Manhattan.     After  long 

altercations,  and  the  arrest  of  Carteret,  terminated  only 
by  the  honest  verdict  of  a  New  York  jury,  Andros  again 
1690.  entered  New  Jersey,  to  intimidate  its  assembly  by  the 
June 2  royaj  patent  to  the  duke.  The  people  of  New  Jersey 
could  not,  as  in  the  happier  Connecticut,  plead  an 
earlier  grant  from  the  king.  But  when  were  Puritans 
at  a  loss  for  arguments  in  favor  of  freedom  ?  "  We  are 
the  representatives  of  the  freeholders  of  this  province ; " 
— such  was  the  answer  of  the  assembly ; — "  his  majes- 
ty's patent,  though  under  the  great  seal,  we  dare  not 
grant  to  be  our  rule  or  joint  safety  ;  for  the  great  char- 
ter of  England,  alias  Magna  Charta,  is  the  only  rule, 
privilege,  and  joint  safety  of  every  free-born  English- 
man."1 

The  firmness  of  the  legislature  preserved  the  inde- 
pendence of  New  Jersey  ;  the  decision  of  Sir  William 
Jones  protected  its  people  against  arbitrary  taxation ; 
its  prosperity  sprung  from  the  miseries  of  Scotland. 
The  trustees  of  Sir  George  Carteret,  tired  of  the  burden 

1  Gordon's  New  Jersey,  47. 


CAUSES  OF  LARGE  EMIGRATION  FROM  SCOTLAND.      409 

of  colonial   property,  exposed  their  province  to  sale  ;  CHAP. 
and  the  unappropriated  domain,  with  jurisdiction  over  ^^ 


the  five  thousand  already  planted  on  the  soil,  was  pur- 
chased  by  an  association  of  twelve  Quakers,    under  and  2. 
the  auspices  of  William  Penn.     A  brief  account  of  the  >»m- 

-  ingand 

province  was  immediately  published  ;  and  settlers  were  Iramsf 
allured  by  a  reasonable  eulogy  on  its  healthful  climate  N.%- 

J  °J  sey,  73. 

and  safe  harbors,  its  fisheries  and  abundant  game,  its 
forests  and  fertile  soil,  and  the  large  liberties  established          , 
for  the  encouragement  of  adventurers.     In  November,  1682 
1682,  possession  was  taken  by  Thomas  Rudyard,1  as  JJelliv- 
temporary  deputy-governor  ;  the  happy  country  was  al-  eofN.ej. 
ready  tenanted  by  "  a  sober,  professing  people."  Mean- 
time the  twelve  proprietors  selected  each  a  partner  ;  and, 
in  March,  1683,  to  the  twenty-four,  among  whom  was   . 

J  Leam- 

the  timorous,  cruel,  iniquitous  Perth,  afterwards  chan-  'sp8^ 

141. 

cellor  of  Scotland,  and  the  amiable,  learned,  and  inge- 
nious Barclay,  who  became  nominally  the  governor  of  the 
territory,  a  new  and  latest  patent  of  East  New  Jersey  1683. 

AT  n  roll 

was  granted  by  the  duke  of  York.  From  Scotland  the  14. 
largest  emigration  was  expected  ;  and,  in  1685,  just  be- 
fore embarking  for  America  with  his  own  family  and 
about  two  hundred  passengers,  George  Scot  of  Pitlochie 
addressed  to  his  countrymen  an  argument  in  favor  of 
removing  to  a  country  where  there  was  room  for  a 
man  to  flourish  without  wronging  his  neighbor.  "  It 
is  judged  the  interest  of  the  government"  —  thus  he 
wrote,  apparently  with  the  sanction  of  men  in  pow- 
er —  "to  suppress  Presbyterian  principles  altogether; 
the  whole  force  of  the  law  of  this  kingdom  is  lev- 
elled at  the  effectual  bearing  them  down.  The  rig- 
orous putting  these  laws  in  execution  hath  in  a  great 
part  ruined  many  of  those  who,  notwithstanding 

1  G.  P.  on  the  Early  History  of     vertiser,   March    and   April,    1839. 
East  Jersey,  in  Newark  Daily  Ad-     Smith's  Hist  of  N.  J.,  166,  167. 

*roT..  ii.  52 


410 


CAUSES   OF   LARGE   EMIGRATION   FROM  SCOTLAND. 


CHAP,  thereof,  find  themselves  in  conscience  obliged  to  retain 

\.  V  11. 

-"*•»"  these  principles.  A  retreat,  where,  by  law,  a  toleration 
is  allowed,  doth  at  present  offer  itself  in  America,  and 
is  no  where  else  to  be  found  in  his  majesty's  do- 
minions." 

This  is  the  era  at  which  East  New  Jersey,  till  now 
chiefly  colonized  from  New  England,  became  the  asy- 
lum of  Scottish  Presbyterians.  Who  has  not  heard  of 
the  ruthless  crimes  by  which  the  Stuarts  attempted  to 
plant  Episcopacy  in  Scotland,  on  the  ruins  of  Calvinism, 
and  extirpate  the  faith  of  a  whole  people  ?  To  whom 

1679.  has  the  tale  not  been  told  of  the  defeat  of  Graham 
of  Claverhouse  on  Loudon  Hill,  and  the  subsequent 
rout  of  the  insurgent  fanatics  at  Bothwell  Bridge  ? 
Who  has  not  heard  of  the  Cameronians,  hunted  like 
beasts  of  prey,  and  exasperated  by  sufferings  and 
despair?  refusing,  in  face  of  the  gallows,  to.  say,  "God 
save  the  king; "  and  charged  even  by  their  wives  to  die 
for  the  good  old  cause  of  the  covenant  ?  "  I  am  but 

H.80.  twenty,"  said  an  innocent  girl  at  her  execution  ;  "and 
they  can  accuse  me  of  nothing  but  my  judgment." 
The  boot  and  the  thumbikins  could  not  extort  confes- 

1681.  sions.      The  condemnation  of  Argyle   displayed    the 

1682.  prime  nobility  as  "  the  vilest  of  mankind;"  and  wide- 

1683.  spread  cruelty  exhausted  itself  in  devising  punishments. 
Just  after  the  grant  of  East  New  Jersey,  a  proclama- 
tion, unparalleled  since  the  days  when  Alva  drove  the 
Netherlands  into  independence,  proscribed  all  who  had 
ever  communed  with  rebels,  and  put  twenty  thousand 
lives  at  the  mercy  of  informers.     "  It  were  better," 
said  Lauderdale,  "  the  country  bore  windle  straws  and 
sand  larks  than  boor  rebels  to  the  king."     After  the 

1684.  insurrection  of  Monmouth,  the  sanguinary  excesses  or 
despotic  revenge  were  revived,  gibbets  erected  in  vil 


CAUSES  OF   LARGE   EMIGRATION   FROM  SCOTLAND.  411 

lages  to  intimidate  the  people,  and  soldiers  intrusted  CHAP, 
with  the  execution  of  the  laws.     Scarce  a  Presbyterian  ^v-J. 
family  in  Scotland  but  was  involved  in  proscriptions  1684 
or  penalties ;  the  jails  overflowed,   and   their  tenants 
were  sold  as  slaves  to  the  plantations.  US. 

Maddened  by  the  succession  of  military  murders ; 
driven  from  their  homes  to  caves,  from  caves  to  mo- 
rasses and  mountains  ;  bringing  death  to  the  inmates  of 
a  house  that  should  shelter  them,  death  to  the  bene- 
factor that  should  throw  them  food,  death  to  the  friend 
that  listened  to  their  complaint,  death  to  the  wife  or 
the  father  that  still  dared  to  solace  a  husband  or  a  son ; 
ferreted  out  by  spies ;  hunted  with  packs  of  dogs, — the 
fanatics  turned  upon  their  pursuers,  and  threatened  to 
retaliate  on  the  men  who  should  continue  to  imbrue 
their  hands  in  blood.  The  council  retorted  by  ordering 
a  massacre.  He  that  would  not  take  the  oath,  should 
be  executed,  though  unarmed ;  and  the  recusants  were 
shot  on  the  roads,  or  as  they  labored  in  the  fields,  or 
as  they  stood  in  prayer.  To  fly  was  a  confession  of 
guilt ;  to  excite  suspicion  was  sentence  of  death  ;  to  own 
the  covenant  was  treason.  The  houses  of  the  victims 
were  set  on  fire ;  their  families  shipped  for  the  colo- 
nies. "  It  never  will  be  well  with  Scotland,  till 
the  country  south  of  the  Forth  is  reduced  to  a  hunting- 
field."  The  remark  is  ascribed  to  James.  "  I  doubt 
not,  sir,  but  to  be  able  to  propose  a  way  how  to  gratifie 
all  such  as  your  majestic  shall  be  pleased  to  thinke 
deserving  of  it,  without  touching  your  exchequer," 
wrote  Jeffries  to  James  II.,  just  as  he  had  passed  sen- 
tence of  transportation  on  hundreds  of  Monmouth's 
English  followers.  James  II.  sent  the  hint  to  the 
north,  and  in  Scotland  the  business  was  equally  well 
jnderstood.  The  indemnity  proclaimed  on  the  acces-  1685 


Wod- 
row. 


412  NO  PERSECUTION   IN   NEW   JERSEI. 

CHAP,  sion  of  James  II.  was  an  act  of  delusive  clemency. 

A.  V  II. 

Every  day  wretched  fugitives  were  tried  by  a  jury  of 

1685.  soldier^  and  executed  in  clusters  on  the  highways; 
women,  fastened  to  stakes  beneath  the  sea-mark,  were 
drowned  by  the  rising  tide  ;  the  dungeons  were  crowd- 
ed with  men  perishing  for  want  of  water  and  air.  The 
humanity  of  the  government  was  barbarous ;  of  the 
shoals  transported  to  America,  women  were  often  burnt 
in  the  cheek,  men  marked  by  lopping  off  their  ears. 

Is  it  strange,  that  Scottish  Presbyterians  of  virtue, 
education,  and  courage,   blending  a  love   of  popular 

liberty  with  religious  enthusiasm,  hurried  to  East  New 
1682 

168?!  Jersey  in  such  numbers  as  to  give  to  the  rising  common- 
wealth a  character  which  a  century  and  a  half  has  not 
effaced  ?  In  1686,  after  the  judicial  murder  of  the  duke 
of  Argyle,  his  brother,  Lord  Neill  Campbell,  who  had 
purchased  the  proprietary  right  of  Sir  George  Mac- 
kenzie, and  in  the  previous  year  had  sent  over  a  large 
number  of  settlers,  came  himself  to  act  for  a  few  months 
as  chief  magistrate.  When  Campbell1  withdrew,  the 
ii^J?d  executive  power,  weakened  by  transfers,  was  intrusted 
B Ton  ty  ^im  *°  Andrew  Hamilton.  The  territory,  easy  of 
HELt°f  access  from  its  extended  seaboard,  its  bays  and  rivers, 
flanked  on  the  west  by  the  safe  outposts  of  the  peace- 
ful Quakers,  was  the  abode  of  peace  and  abundance,  of 
deep  religious  faith,  and  of  honest  industry.  Peaches 
and  vines  grew  wild  on  the  river  sides ;  the  woods 
were  crimsoned  with  strawberries;  and  "brave  oys- 
ters "  abounded  along  the  shore.  Brooks  and  rivulets, 
with  "  curious  clear  water,"  were  as  plenty  as  in  the 
dear  native  Scotland  ;  the  houses  of  the  towns,  unlike 
the  pent  villages  of  the  old  world,  were  scattered  upon 
the  several  lots  and  farms;  the  highways  were  so 

1  I  am    indebted    to   Garret   D.    of  Learning   and   Spicer's    Collec- 
Wall,  of  New  Jersey,  fo*  a  copy    tion  of  Grants,  &.C.,  of  N  ^  Jersey. 


NEW  JERSEY    ANNEXED    TO   NEW   YORK.  413 

broad,  that  flocks  of  sheep  could  nibble  by  the  roadside  ;  CHAP. 
troops  of  horses  multiplied  in  the  woods.     In  a  few  v-^v-*l 
years,  a  law  of  the  commonwealth,  giving  force  to  the 
common  principle  of  the  New  England  and  the  Scottish 
Calvinists,  established  a  system  of  free  schools.     It  was 
"  a  gallant,    plentiful "   country,    where  the  humblest 
laborer  might  soon  turn  farmer  for  himself.     In  all  its 
borders,  said  Gawen  Laurie,  the  faithful  Quaker  mer- 
chant, who  had  been  Rudyard's  successor,  "  there  is 
not  a  poor  body,  or  one  that  wants." 

Thus  the  mixed  character  of  New  Jersey  springs 
from  the  different  sources  of  its  people.  Puritans, 
Covenanters,  and  Quakers,  met  on  her  soil ;  and  their 
faith,  institutions,  and  preferences,  having  life  in  the 
common  mind,  survive  the  Stuarts. 

Every  thing  breathed  hope,  but  for  the  arbitrary 
cupidity  of  James  II.,  and  the  navigation  acts.  Dyer, 
the  collector,  eager  to  levy  a  tax  on  the  commerce  of 
the  colony,  complained  of  their  infringement ;  in  April, 
1686,  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  against  the  proprietaries, 
menaced  New  Jersey  with  being  made  "  more  depend- 
ent." It  was  of  no  avail  to  appeal  to  the  justice  of 
King  James,  who  revered  the  prerogative  with  idola- 
try ;  and  in  1688,  to  stay  the  process  for  forfeiture,  the 
proprietaries,  stipulating  only  for  their  right  of  property 
in  the  soil,  surrendered  their  claim  to  the  jurisdiction 
The  province  was  annexed  to  New  York. 

In  New  York,  the  attempt  to  levy  customs  without  1683 
a  colonial  assembly,  had  been  defeated  by  the  grand       w 
jury  ;  and  trade  became  free,  just  as  Andros  was  re- 
turning to  England.    All  parties  joined  in  entreating  for 
the  people  a  share  in  legislation.     The  duke  of  York 
was  at  the  same  time  solicited  by  those  about  him  to 


414 


THE   PEOPLE    OF   N.   Y.    EXERCISE   LEGISLATIVE   POWER 


CHAP  sell  the  territory.     He   demanded  the   advice    of  one 

—~v~  who  always  advised  honestly  ;  and  no  sooner  had  the 

1682    father  of  Pennsylvania,  after   a  visit   at  New  York, 

transmitted    an    account   of    the  reforms    which    the 

province  required,  than,  without  delay,  Thomas  Don- 

1683.  gan,  a  Papist,  came  over  as  governor,  with  instructions 

to  convoke  a  free  legislature. 

At  last,  after  long  effort,  on  the  seventeenth  day  of 
Oct.  October,  1683,  about  seventy  years  after  Manhattan 
was  first  occupied,  about  thirty  years  after  the  demand 
of  the  popular  convention  by  the  Dutch,  the  representa 
lives  of  the  people  met  in  assembly  ;  and  their  self 
established  "  CHARTER  OF  LIBERTIES  "  gave  New  York 
a  place  by  the  side  of  Virginia  and  Massachusetts. 

"  Supreme  legislative  power"  —  such  was  itsdeclara 
tion  —  "shall  forever  be  and  reside  in  the  governor,  coun 
cil,  and  people,  met  in  general  assembly.     Every  free- 
holder and  freeman  shall  vote  for  representation  without 
restraint.    No  freeman  shall  suffer  but  by  judgment  of 
his  peers;  and  all  trials  shall  be  by  a  jury  of  twelve  men 
No  tax  shall  be  assessed,  on  any  pretence  whatever,  but 
by  the  consent  of  the  assembly.     No  seaman  or  soldier 
shall  be  quartered  on  the  inhabitants  against  their  will. 
No  martial  law  shall   exist.      No  person,   professing 
faith  in  God  by  Jesus  Christ,  shall  at  any  time  be  any 
ways  disquieted  or  questioned  for  any  difference  of 
opinion." 

Thus  did  the  collision  of  different  elements  eliminate 
the  intolerance  and  superstition  of  the  early  codes  of 
Puritanism. 

But  the  hope  of  a  permanent  representative  govern- 
ment was  to  be  deferred.  It  shows  the  true  character 
of  James,  that,  on  gaining  power  by  ascending  the 
English  throne,  he  immediately  threw  down  the  insti- 


1686 


INSTITUTIONS  OF  THE  FIVE  NATIONS.  415 

tutions  which    he   had  conceded.      A  direct  tax  was  CHAP 

XVII 

decreed  by  an  ordinance  ;  the  titles  to  real  estate  were  *— ^ 
questioned,  that   larger   fees   and  quitrents  might  be  $£wi 
extorted ;  and  of  the  farmers  of  Easthampton  who  pro- 
tested against  the   tyranny,  six  were  arraigned  before 
the  council. 

While  the  liberties  of  New  York  were  thus  seques- 
tered by  a  monarch  who  desired  to  imitate  the  despot- 
ism of  France,  its  frontiers  had  no  protection  against 
encroachments  from  Canada,  except  in  the  valor  of  the 
Iroquois.  The  Mohawks,  Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Cayu- 
gas,  and  Senecas,  the  Five  Nations,  dwelling  near  the 
dver  and  the  lakes  that  retain  their  names,  formed  a 
confederacy  of  equal  tribes.  The  union  of  three  of  the 
nations  precedes  tradition ;  the  Oneidas  and  Senecas 
were  younger  associates.  Each  nation  was  a  sovereign 
republic,  divided  again  into  clans,  between  which  a 
slight  subordination  was  scarcely  perceptible.  The 
clansmen  dwelt  in  fixed  places  of  abode,  surrounded  by 
fields  of  beans  and  of  maize  ;  each  castle,  like  a  New 
England  town  or  a  Saxon  hundred,  constituted  a  little 
democracy.  There  was  no  slavery ;  no  favored  caste. 
All  men  were  equal.  The  union  was  confirmed  by  an 
unwritten  compact ;  the  congress  of  the  sachems,  at 
Onondaga,  like  the  Witena-gemots  of  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
transacted  all  common  business.  Authority  resided  in 
opinion ;  law  in  oral  tradition.  Honor  and  esteem 
enforced  obedience ;  shame  and  contempt  punished 
offenders.  The  leading  warrior  was  elected  by  the 
general  confidence  in  his  virtue  and  conduct;  merit 
alone  could  obtain  preferment  to  office  ;  and  power  was 
as  permanent  as  the  esteem  of  the  tribe.  No  profit 
was  attached  to  eminent  station,  to  tempt  the  sordid. 
As  their  brave  men  went  forth  to  war,  instead  of  martial 


416  WARS  OF  THE  FIVE  NATIONS  WITH  OTHER  TRIBES. 

CHAP,  instruments,  they  were  cheered  by  the  clear  voice  ol 

XVII. 

*— ^-~  their  leader.  On  the  smooth  surface  of  a  tree  from 
which  the  outer  bark  had  been  peeled,  they  painted 
their  deeds  of  valor  by  the  simplest  symbols.  These 
were  their  trophies  and  their  annals ;  these  and  their 
war-songs  preserved  the  memory  of  their  heroes. 
They  proudly  deemed  themselves  supreme  among  man- 
kind ;  men  excelling  all  others ;  and  hereditary  arro- 
gance inspired  their  young  men  with  dauntless  courage. 
When  Hudson,  John  Smith,  and  Champlain,  were  in 
America  together,  the  Mohawks  had  extended  their 
strolls  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Virginia ;  half  Long 
Island  paid  them  tribute ;  and  a  Mohawk  sachem  was 
reverenced  on  Massachusetts  Bay.  The  geographical 
position  of  their  fixed  abodes,  including  within  their 
immediate  sway  the  headlands  not  of  the  Hudson  only, 
but  of  the  rivers  that  flow  to  the  gulfs  of  Mexico  and 
St.  Lawrence,  the  bays  of  Chesapeake  and  Delaware, 
opened  widest  regions  to  their  canoes,  and  invited 
them  to  make  their  war-paths  along  the  channels 
where  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  are  now  perfecting 
the  avenues  of  commerce.  Becoming  possessed  of 
fire-arms  by  intercourse  with  the  Dutch,  they  renewed 

1649.  their  merciless,  hereditary  warfare   with  the  Hurons  ; 

1653   and,  in  the  following  years,  the   Eries,  on  the  south 

1655  shore  of  the  lake  of  which  the  name  commemorates  their 

1656  existence,  were  defeated  and  extirpated.     The  Allegha- 
1672.  ny  was  nexi  descended,  and  the  tribes  near  Pittsburg, 

probably  of  the  Huron  race,  leaving  no  monument  but  a 
name  to  the  Guyandot  River  of  Western  Virginia,  were 
subjugated  and  destroyed.  In  the  east  and  in  the  west, 
from  the  Kennebec  to  the  Mississippi,  the  Abenakis  as 
well  as  the  Miamis  and  the  remoter  Illinois,  could  raise 
no  barrier  against  the  invasions  of  the  Iroquois  but  by 
alliances  with  the  French 


WARS   OF   THE   FIVE   NATIONS   WITH   THE   FRENCH. 

But  the  Five  Nations  had  defied  a  prouder  enemy.  CHAP 

A.  V 11* 

At  the  commencement  of  the  administration  of  Dongan,  — •v^~ 
the  European  population  of  New  France,    which,   in  1676 
1679,  amounted  to   eight  thousand  five  hundred  and 
fifteen  souls,   may  have  been  a  little  more  than  ten 
thousand  ;  the  number  of  men  capable  of  bearing  arms 
was  perhaps  three  thousand,  about  the  number  of  war- 
riors of  the  Five    Nations.      But  the    Iroquois   were 
freemen  ;    New  France   suffered  from  despotism  and 
monopoly.      The    Iroquois    recruited    their    tribes    by 
adopting  captives  of  foreign  nations  ;  New  France  was 
sealed  against  the  foreigner  and  the  heretic.     For  near- 
ly fourscore  years,  hostilities   had  prevailed,  with  few 
interruptions.     Thrice  did  Champlain  invade  the  coun- 
try of  the  Mohawks,  till  he  was  driven  with  wounds  16QO 
and  disgrace   from  their  wilderness  fastnesses.     The     to 
Five  Nations,  in  return,  at  the  period  of  the  massacre  1622 
in  Virginia,  attempted  the  destruction  of  New  France.  1623 
Though  repulsed,  they  continued  to  defy  the  province 
and   its   allies,  and,  under  the   eyes  of  its  governor,  1637 
openly  intercepted  canoes  destined  for  Quebec.     The 
French  authority  was  not   confirmed   by   founding  a  1640 
feeble  outpost  at  Montreal;  and  Fort  Richelieu,  at  the  164? 
mouth  of  the  Sorel,  scarce  protected  its  immediate  en- 
virons.    Negotiations  for  peace  led  to  no  permanent  1645 
result ;  and  even  tlv,  influence  of  the  Jesuit  missiona- 
ries, the  most  faithful,  disinterested,  and  persevering 
of  their  order,  could  not  permanently  restrain  the  san- 
guinary vengeance   of  the   barbarians.     The  Iroquois 
warriors  scoured  every  wilderness  to  lay  it   still  more 
waste  ;    they  thirsted  for  the  blood  of  the  few    men 
who  roamed  over  the  regions  between  Huron,  Erie,  and 
Ontario.      Depopulating  the    whole    country   on  the  1649 
Outawa,  they  obtained  an  acknowledged  superiority 
VOL.  ii.  53 


418  WARS  OF  THE  FIVE  NATIONS   WITH  THE  FRENCH. 

CHAP,  over  New  France,  mitigated  only  by  commercial  rela 
— -v-~  tions  of  the  French  traders  with  the  tribes  that  dwelt 
1654  farthest  from  the   Hudson.     The  colony  was  still  in 
1660.  perpetual  danger;  and  Quebec  itself  was  besieged. 

To   what   use  a  winter's    invasion  of   the  country 
1666.  of    the    Mohawks?     The    savages    disappeared,  leav- 
ing their  European   adversaries  to  war  with  the  wil- 
derness. 

By  degrees  the  French  made  firmer  advances ;  and 

1672.  a  fort  built  at  the  outlet  of  Ontario,  for  the  purpose,  as 
was  pretended,  of  having  a  convenient  place  for  trea- 
ties, commanded  the  commerce  of  the  lake 

1673.  We  have  seen  the  Mohawks  brighten  the  covenant 
chain  that  bound  them  to  the  Dutch.     The  English, 
on   recovering  the    banks  of  the  Hudson,    confirmed, 
without  delay,  the  Indian  alliance,  and,  by  the  confi- 
dence with  which  their  friendship  inspired  the  Iroquois, 
increased  the  dangers  that  hovered  over  New  France. 

1682  ^ne  ru*n  wn*cn  menaced  Canada  gave  a  transient 
1683.  existence  to  a  large  legislative  council ;  and  an  assem- 
bly of  notables  was  convoked  by  De  la  Barre,  the 
governor-general,  to  devise  a  remedy  for  the  ills  under 
which  the  settlements  languished.  It  marks  the 
character  of  the  colonists,  that,  instead  of  demanding 
civil  franchises,  they  solicited  a  larger  garrison  from 
Louis  XIV. 

1683.  The  governor  of  New  York  had  been  instructed  to 
preserve  friendly  relations  with  the  French  ;  but  Don- 
gan  refused  to  neglect  the  Five  Nations.  From  the 
French  traders  who  were  restrained  by  a  strict  monop- 
oly, the  wild  hunters  of  beaver  turned  to  the  English, 
who  favored  competition ;  and  their  mutual  ties  were 
strengthened  by  an  amnesty  of  past  injuries. 

Along  the  war-paths  of  the  Five  Nations,  down  the 


TREATY   AT  ALBANY    WITH   THE   FIVE  NATIONS.  419 

Susquehannah,  and  near  the  highlands  of  Virginia,  the  CHAP. 
proud  Oneida,  Onondaga,   and   Cayuga  warriors  had  — -v-*. 
left  bloody  traces  of  their  presence.     The  impending 
struggle   with  New   France  quickened  the  desire  of 
renewing  peace  with  the  English ;  and  the  deputies 
from   the    Mohawks  and  the   three   offending    tribes, 
soon  joined    by    the   Senecas,   met  the    governors  of 
New  York  and  Virginia  at  Albany. 

To  the  complaints  and  the  pacific  proposals  of  Lord  coide> 
Howard  of  Effingham,  Cadianne,  the  Mohawk  orator,  Jul_ 
replied  : —  14 

"  Sachem  of  Virginia,  and  you,  Corlaer,  sachem  of 
New  York,  give  ear,  for  we  will  not  conceal  the  evil 
that  has  been  done."  The  orator  then  rebuked  the 
Oneidas,  Onondagas,  and  Cayugas,  for  their  want  of 
faith,  and  gave  them  a  belt  of  wampum,  to  quicken 
their  memory.  Then,  turning  to  Effingham,  he  con- 
tinued : — 

"  Great  sachem  of  Virginia,  these  three  beaver-skins 
are  a  token  of  our  gladness  that  your  heart  is  softened ; 
these  two  of  our  joy,  that  the  axe  is  to  be  buried.  We 
are  glad  that  you  will  bury  in  the  pit  what  is  past. 
Let  the  earth  be  trod  hard  over  it;  let  a  strong  stream 
run  under  the  pit,  to  wash  the  evil  away  out  of  our  sight 
and  remembrance,  so  that  it  never  may  be  digged  up. 

"  You  are  wise  to  keep  the  covenant-chain  bright 
as  silver ;  and  now  to  renew  it  and  make  it  stronger. 
These  nations  are  chain-breakers ;  we  Mohawks  " — as 
he  spoke  he  gave  two  beavers  and  a  raccoon — "  we 
Mohawks  have  kept  the  chain  entire.  The  covenant 
must  be  preserved ;  the  fire  of  love  of  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  and  of  the  Five  Nations,  burns  in  this  place  : 
this  house  of  peace  must  be  kept  clean.  We  plant  a 
tree  whose  top  shall  touch  the  sun,  whose  branches 


420       TREATY  AT  ALBANY  WITH  THE  FIVE  NATIONS. 

CHAP,  shall  be  seen  afar.     We  will  shelter  ourselves  under  it, 

XVII. 

— -v^-  and  live  in  unmolested  peace." 

1684.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty,  each  of  the  three  of- 
fending nations  gave  a  hatchet  to  be  buried.  "  We 
bury  none  for  ourselves,"  said  the  Mohawks,  "  for  we 
have  never  broken  the  ancient  chain." 

The  axes  were  buried,  and  the  offending  tribes  in 
noisy  rapture  chanted  the  song  of  peace. 

Aug  «  Brother  Corlaer,"  said  a  chief  for  the  Onondagas 
and  Cayugas,  "  your  sachem  is  a  great  sachem ;  and 
we  are  a  small  people.  When  the  English  came 
first  to  Manhattan,  to  Virginia,  and  to  Maryland,  they 
were  a  small  people,  and  we  were  great.  Because  we 
found  you  a  good  people,  we  treated  you  kindly,  and 
gave  you  land.  Now,  therefore,  that  you  are  great 
and  we  small,  we  hope  you  will  protect  us  from  the 
French.  They  are  angry  with  us  because  we  carry 
beaver  to  our  brethren." 

A  The  envoys  of  the   Senecas  soon  arrived,  and  ex- 

5-  pressed  their  delight,  that  the  tomahawk  was  already 
buried,  and  all  evil  put  away  from  the  hearts  of  the 
English  sachems.  On  the  same  day,  a  messenger  from 
De  la  Barre  appeared  at  Albany.  But  his  complaints 
were  unheeded.  "  We  have  not  wandered  from  our 
paths,"  said  the  Senecas.  "  But  when  Onondio,  the 
sachem  of  Canada,  threatens  us  with  war,  shall  we  run 
away  ?  Shall  we  sit  still  in  our  houses  ?  Our  beaver- 
hunters  are  brave  men,  and  the  beaver-hunt  must  be 
free."  The  sachems  returned  to  nail  the  arms  of  the 
duke  of  York  over  their  castles — a  protection,  as  they 
thought,  against  the  French — an  acknowledgment,  as 
the  English  deemed,  of  British  sovereignty. 

Meantime  the  rash  and  confident  De  la  Barre,  with 
six  hundred  French  soldiers,  four  hundred  Indian  allies. 


RENEWED   WAR  WITH   THE   FRENCH.  421 

our  hundred  carriers,  and   three   hundred  men  for  a  CHAP 

garrison,  advanced   to  the   fort  which  stood  near  the > 

outlet  of  the  present  Rideau  Canal.  But  the  unhealthy  1684 
exhalations  of  August  on  the  marshy  borders  of  Ontario 
disabled  his  army ;  and,  after  crossing  the  lake,  and  dis- 
embarking his  wasted  troops  in  the  land  of  the  Orion- 
dagas,  he  was  compelled  to  solicit  peace  from  the  tribes 
whom  he  had  designed  to  exterminate.  The  Mohawks, 
at  the  request  of  the  English,  refused  to  negotiate , 
but  the  other  nations,  jealous  of  English  supremacy, 
desired  to  secure  independence  by  balancing  the  French 
against  the  English.  An  Onondaga  chief  called  Heav- 
en to  witness  his  resentment  at  English  interference. 
"  Onondio,"  he  proudly  exclaimed  to  the  envoy  of  New 
York,  "  Onondio  has  for  ten  years  been  our  father ; 
Corlaer  has  long  been  our  brother.  But  it  is  because 
we  have  willed  it  so.  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
is  our  master.  He  who  made  the  world  gave  us  the 
land  in  which  we  dwell.  We  are  free.  You  call  us 
subjects  ;  we  say  we  are  brethren ;  we  must  take  care 
of  ourselves.  I  will  go  to  my  father,  for  he  has  come  to 
my  gate,  and  desires  to  speak  with  me  words  of  reason. 
We  will  embrace  peace  instead  of  war ;  the  axe  shall 
be  thrown  into  a  deep  water." 

The  deputies  of  the  tribes  repaired  to  the  presence  i*  - 
of  De  la  Barre  to  exult  in  his  humiliation.  "  It  is  well 
for  you,"  said  the  eloquent  Haaskouaun,  rising  from 
the  calumet,  "  that  you  have  left  under  ground  the 
hatchet  which  has  so  often  been  dyed  in  the  blood  of  the 
French.  Our  children  and  old  men  had  carried  their 
bows  and  arrows  into  the  heart  of  your  camp,  if  our 
braves  had  not  kept  them  back. — Our  warriors  have 
not  beaver  enough  to  pay  for  the  arms  we  have  taken 
from  the  French  ;  and  our  old  men  are  not  afraid  of 


422  LOUIS   XIV.   A   KIDiNAPPER 

CHAP.  war. — We  may  guide  the  English  to  our  lakes.     We  are 
— • v~  born  free.    We  depend  neither  on  Onondio  nor  Corlaer." 

1684.  Dismayed  by  the  energy  of  the  Seneca  chief,  the 
governor  of  Canada  accepted. a  disgraceful  treaty,  leav- 
ing his  allies  at  the  mercy  of  their  enemies. 

Meantime  fresh  troops  arrived  from  France,  and 
De  la  Barre  was  superseded  by  Denonville,  an  officer 
whom  Charlevoix  extols  as  possessing,  in  a  sovereign 
degree,  every  quality  of  a  perfectly  honorable  man. 
His  example,  it  is  said,  made  virtue  and  religion  more 

1685.  respectable:  his  tried  valor  and  active  zeal  were  en- 
hanced by  prudence  and  sagacity.     But  blind  obedience 
paralyzes  conscience  and  enslaves  reason  ;  and   fjuiet 
pervaded  neither  the  Five   Nations   nor  the  English 
provinces. 

For  the  defence  of  New  France,  a  fort  was  to  be 
established  at  Niagara.  The  design,  which  would  have 

May.'  controlled  the  entire  fur-trade  of  the  Upper  Lakes,  was 
resisted  by  Dongan ;  for,  it  was  said,  the  country  south 
of  the  lakes,  the  whole  domain  of  the  Iroquois,  is  sub 
ject  to  England.      Thus  began  the  long  contest    for 

May  territory  in  the  west.  The  limits  between  the  English 
and  French  never  were  settled ;  but,  for  the  present, 
the  Five  Nations  of  themselves  were  a  sufficient  bul- 
wark against  encroachments  from  Canada,  and  in  the 
summer  of  1686,  a  party  of  English  traders  penetrated 
even  to  Michilimackinac. 

The  gentle  spirit  which  swayed  William   Penn  at 

Shackamaxon  did  not  find  its  way  into  the  voluptuous 

councils  of  Versailles.     "  The  welfare  of  my  service  " — 

uhatu.  such  were  the  instructions  of  Louis  XIV.  to  the  erov- 

volx. 

ernor  of  New  France — "  requires  that  the  number  of 
the  Iroquois  should  be  diminished  as  much  as  possible. 
They  are  strong  and  robust,  and  can  be  made  useful 


MAGNANIMITY   OF  THE  ONONDAGAS  423 

as  galley-slaves.  Do  what  you  can  to  take  a  large  CHAP. 
number  of  them  prisoners  of  war,  and  ship  them  for  ~~~ 
France."  By  open  hostilities,  no  captives  could  be  1687 
made ;  and  Lamberville,  the  missionary  among  the 
Onondagas,  was  unconsciously  employed  to  decoy  the 
Iroquois  chiefs  into  the  fort  on  Ontario.  Invited  to  ne- 
gotiate a  treaty,  they  assemble  without  distrust,  are 
surprised,  put  in  irons,  hurried  to  Quebec,  and  thence 
to  Europe,  and  the  warrior  hunters  of  the  Five  Nations, 
who  used  to  roam  from  Hudson's  Bay  to  Carolina,  were 
chained  to  the  oar  in  the  galleys  of  Marseilles.  But  the 
counsels  of  injustice  are  always  fearfully  avenged ;  and 
the  sins  of  the  fathers  are  jealously  visited  on  the  chil- 
dren unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation.  We  shall 
hereafter  have  occasion  to  pursue  the  maritime  destinies 
of  a  monarchy  of  which  the  fleets  employed  slaves  for 
mariners. 

Meantime  the  old  men  of  the  Onondagas  summoned 
Lamberville  to  their  presence.  "  We  have  much  rea- 
son," said  an  aged  chief,  "  to  treat  thee  as  an  enemy, 
but  we  know  thee  too  well.  Thou  hast  betrayed  us ; 
but  treason  was  not  in  thy  heart.  Fly,  therefore,  for 
when  our  young  braves  shall  have  sung  their  war-song, 
they  will  listen  to  no  voice  but  the  swelling  voice  of 
their  anger."  And  trusty  guides  conducted  the  mis- 
sionary through  by-paths  into  a  place  of  security.  The 
noble  forbearance  was  due  to  the  counsel  of  Garon- 
konthie.  Generous  barbarian  !  your  honor  shall  en- 
dure, if  words  of  mine  can  preserve  the  memory  of  CT^* 

A     A  M1 

your  deeds. 

An  incursion  into  the  country  of  the  Senecas  fol- 
lowed. The  savages  retired  into  remoter  forests ;  of 
the  country  which  was  overrun  without  resistance,  pos- 
session was  taken  by  the  French,  and  a  fort  erected 


424  THE  TREACHERY  OF  LOUIS  XIV 

CHAP,  at  Niagara.     France  seemed  to  have  gained   firm  pos- 

— "^  session  of  Western  New  York.  But  as  the  French 
army  withdrew,  the  wilderness  remained  to  its  old 
inhabitants.  The  Senecas  in  their  turn  made  a  de- 
scent upon  their  still  feebler  enemy  ;  and  the  Onondagas 
threatened  war.  "  Onondio  has  stolen  our  sachems ; 
he  has  broken,"  said  they,  "  the  covenant  of  peace  ;  " 
and  Dongan,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  French,  offered 
himself  as  mediator,  but  only  on  condition  that  the 
kidnapped  chiefs  should  be  ransomed,  the  fort  in  the 
Iroquois  country  razed,  and  the  spoils  of  the  Senecas 
restored. 

1688.  The  negotiations  fail  ;  and  Haaskouaun  advances 
with  five  hundred  warriors  to  dictate  the  terms  of 
peace.  "  I  have  always  loved  the  French,"  said  the 
proud  chieftain  to  the  foes  whom  he  scorned.  "  Our 
warriors  proposed  to  come  and  burn  your  forts,  your 
houses,  your  granges,  and  your  corn  ;  to  weaken  you 
by  famine,  and  then  to  overwhelm  you.  I  am  come 
to  tell  Onondio  he  can  escape  this  misery,  if  within 
four  days  he  will  yield  to  the  terms  which  Corlaer 
has  proposed." 

Twelve  hundred  Iroquois  were  already  on  Lake  St. 
Francis ;  in  two  days  they  could  reach  Montreal. 
The  haughty  condescension  of  the  Seneca  chief  was 

chute,  accepted,  the  ransom  of  the  Iroquois  chiefs  conceded, 
fao-  and  the  whole  country  south  of  the  chain  of  lakes 
rescued  from  the  dominion  of  Canada.  In  the  course  of 
events,  New  York  owes  its  present  northern  boundary 
to  the  valor  of  the  Five  Nations.  But  for  them  Canada 
would  have  embraced  the  basin  of  the  St.  Lawrence. 

1686  During  these  events,  James  II.  had,  in  a  treaty  with 
Louis  XIV.,  made  it  a  condition  of  amity  between  the 
colonies  of  the  two  states,  that  neither  should  assist  the 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF   DESPOTISM  IN   MASSACHUSETTS.  425 

Indian  tribes  with  whom  the  other  might  be  at  war.  CHAP 

xvn 
Thus  did  the  king  of  England  ignorantly  abandon  his  -  —  — 

allies.  Yet,  with  all  his  faults,  James  II.  had  a  strong 
sentiment  of  English  nationality  ;  and,  in  consolidating 
the  northern  colonies,  he  hoped  to  engage  the  ener- 
gies of  New  England  in  defence  of  the  whole  English 
frontier. 

The  alarm  of  Massachusetts  at  the  loss  of  its  charter  1685 
had  been  increased  by  the  news  that  Kirke,  after- 
wards infamous  for  military  massacres  in  the  West  of 
England,  was  destined  for  its  governor.  It  was  a 
relief  to  find  that  Joseph  Dudley,  a  degenerate  son 
of  the  colony,  was  intrusted  for  a  season  with  the 
highest  powers  of  magistracy  over  the  country  from 
Narragansett  to  Nova  Scotia.  The  general  court,  in 


session  at  his  arrival,  and  unprepared  for  open  resist-    May 
ance,  dissolved  their  assembly,  and  returned  in  sadness 
to  their  homes.     The  charter  government  was  publicly    May 
displaced  by  the  arbitrary  commission,  popular  repre- 
sentation abolished,  and  the  press   subjected  to   the 
censorship  of  Randolph. 

At  last,  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  glittering  in  scarlet  and  Dec. 
lace,  landed  at  Boston,  as  governor  of  all  New  Eng- 
land. How  unlike  Penn  at  Newcastle  !  He  was 
authorized  to  remove  and  appoint  members  of  his 
council,  and,  with  their  consent,  to  make  laws,  lay 
taxes,  and  control  the  militia  of  the  country.  He  was 
instructed  to  tolerate  no  printing-press,  to  encourage 
Episcopacy,  and  to  sustain  authority  by  force.  From 
New  York  came  West  as  secretary  ;  and  in  the  coun- 
cil, four  subservient,  members,  of  whom  but  one  was  a 
New  England  man,  alone  commanded  his  attention. 
The  other  members  of  the  council  formed  a  fruitless 
but  united  opposition.  "  His  excellency,"  said  Ran- 
dolph, "  has  to  do  with  a  perverse  people." 
VOL.  n.  54 


426  THE   SURPLICE   WORN  IN  BOSTON. 

CHAP.       A  series  of  measures  followed,  the  most  vexatious 

— ~  and  tyrannical   to  which  men  of  English  descent  were 

cotton   ever  exposed.     "  The  wicked  walked  on  every  side ; 

and   the   vilest  men   were   exalted."     As   agents  of 

James  II.,  they  established  an  arbitrary  government; 

as  men  in  orifice,  they  coveted  large  emoluments. 

The  schools  of  learning,  formerly  so  well  taken  care 
of,  were  allowed  to  go  to  decay.     The  religious  insti- 
tutions were  impaired  by  abolishing   the  methods  of 
their  support.     "  It  is  pleasant,"  said  the  foreign  agent.* 
^ss*  of  tyranny,   "  to  behold  poor  coblers  and  pitiful  me 
chanics,  who  have  neither  home  nor  land,  strutting  ano 
making  noe  mean  figure  at  their  elections,  and  some 
of  the  richest  merchants  and  wealthiest  of  the  people 
stand   by  as  insignificant  cyphers ; "  and  therefore  a 
1688.  town-meeting  was  allowed  only  for  the  choice  of  town 
IQ'    officers.     The  vote  by  ballot  was  rejected.     To  a  com- 
mittee from  Lynn,  Andros  said  plainly,  "  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  a  town  in  the  whole  country."     To  assem- 
ble in   town-meeting  for  deliberation  was  an  act  of 
sedition  or  a  riot. 

1687.  Personal  liberty  and  the  customs  of  the  country 
were  disregarded.  None  might  leave  the  country 
without  a  special  permit.  Probate  fees  were  increased 
almost  twenty  fold.  "  West,"  says  Randolph, — for  dis- 
honest men  betray  one  another, — "  extorts  what  fees  he 
pleases,  to  the  great  oppression  of  the  people,  and  ren- 
ders the  present  government  grievous."  To  the  scru- 
pulous Puritans,  the  idolatrous  custom  of  laying  the 
hand  on  the  Bible,  in  taking  an  oath,  operated  as  a 
widely-disfranchising  test. 

The  Episcopal  service  had  never  yet  been  performed 

within  Massachusetts  Bay,  except  by  the  chaplain  of 

the  hated  commission  of  1665.     Its  day  of  liberty  was 

Dec.   come.     Andros  demanded  one  of  the  meeting-houses 


ARBITRARY  TAXATION  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  427 

for  the  church.     The  wrongs  of  a  century  crowded  CHAP. 
on  the  memories  of  the  Puritans  as  they   answered,  •— v^i- 
"  We    cannot    with   a    good    conscience     consent." 
Goodman  Needham  declared  he  would  not  ring  the 

-|  />  Q  m 

bell ;  but  at  the  appointed  hour  the  bell  rung ;  and  the    Mar.' 
love  of  liberty  did  not  expire,  even  though,  in  a  Boston     ^ 
meeting-house,  the  Common  Prayer  was  read  in  a  sur- 
plice.     By-and-by,  the  people  were  desired  to  con-  lf^' 
tribute  towards  erecting  a  church.      "  The  bishops,"     23. 
answered  Sewall,  and  wisely,  "  would  have  thought 
strange  to  have  been  asked  to  contribute  towards  setting 
up  New  England  churches." 

At  the  instance  and  with  the  special  concurrence  ot 
James  II.,  a  tax  of  a  penny  in  the  pound,  and  a  poll-tax  IGB/. 
of  twenty  pence,  with  a  subsequent  increase  of  duties,     ?JC 
were  laid  by  Andros  and  his  council.      The  towns 
generally  refused  payment.     Wilbore,  of  Taunton,  was 
imprisoned-  for  writing  a  protest.     To  the  people  of 
Ipswich,  in  town-meeting,  John  Wise,  the  minister  who   Auf 
used  to  assert,  "  Democracy  is  Christ's  government  in 
church  and  state,"  advised  resistance. — "  We  have," 
said  he,  "  a  good  God  and  a  good  king;  we  shall  do 
well  to  stand  to  our  privileges." — "  You  have  no  privi- 
lege," answered  one  of  the  council,  after  the  arraign- 
ment of  Wise  and  the  selectmen,   "you  have  no  privi- 
lege left  you  but  not  to  be  sold  as  slaves." — "  Do  you 
believe,"  demanded  Andros,  "Joe  and  Tom  may  tell  the  ^'^ 
king  what  money  he  may  have  ?  "     The  writ  of  habeas    125m 
corpus  was  withheld.     The  prisoners  pleaded  Magna 
Charta.    "  Do  not  think,"  replied  one  of  the  judges,  "  the 
laws  of  England  follow  you  to  the  ends  of  the  earth." 
And  in  his  charge  to  the  packed  jury,  Dudley  spoke 
plainly,  "  Worthy  gentlemen,  we  expect  a  good  verdict 
from  you."     The  verdict  followed  ;  and  after  imprison- 
ment came  heavy  fines  and  partial  disfranchisements. 


428  THE  INQUISITION  FOR  SPOILS. 

CHAP.       Oppression  threatened  the  country  with  ruin ;  and 

xvii.  .  .        J 

-*~* —  the  oppressors,  quoting  an  opinion  current  among  the 

mercantile  monopolists  of  England,  answered  without 
disguise,  "  It  is  not  for  his  majesty's  interest  you  should 
thrive." 

1687  The  taxes,  in  amount  not  grievous,  were  for  public 
purposes.  But  the  lean  wolves  of  tyranny  were  them- 
selves hungry  for  spoils.  In  1680,  Randolph  had 
hinted  that  "  the  Bostoneers  have  no  right  to  govern- 
ment or  land,  but  are  usurpers."  King  James  did  in- 
deed command,  that  "their  several  properties,  according 
to  their  ancient  records,"  should  be  granted  them ;  the 
fee  for  the  grants  was  the  excuse  for  extortion.  "  All 
the  inhabitants,"  wrote  Randolph,  exultingly,  "  must 
take  new  grants  of  their  lands,  which  will  bring  in  vast 
profits."  Indeed,  there  was  not  money  enough  in  the 
country  to  have  paid  the  exorbitant  fees  which  were 
demanded. 

The  colonists  pleaded  their  charter ;  but  grants  under 
the  charter  were  declared  void  by  its  forfeiture. — 
Lynde,  of  Charlestown,  produced  an  Indian  deed.  It 
was  pronounced  "  worth  no  more  than  the  scratch  of  a 
bear's  paw."  Lands  were  held,  not  by  a  feudal  tenure, 
but  under  grants  from  the  general  court  to  towns,  and 
from  towns  to  individuals.  The  town  of  Lynn  pro- 
duced its  records ;  they  were  slighted  "  as  not  worth 
a  rush."  Others  pleaded  possession  and  use  of  the 
land.  "  You  take  possession,"  it  was  answered,  "  for 
the  king." — "  The  men  of  Massachusetts  did  much 
quote  Lord  Coke  ; "  but,  defeated  in  argument  by  An- 
84i.'  dros,  who  was  a  good  lawyer,  John  Higginson,  minister 
of  Salem,  went  back  from  the  common  law  of  England 
lUTdc  to  the  book  of  Genesis,  and,  remembering  that  God 
K  10 18'  Save  tne  eartn  to  tne  sons  °f  Adam  to  be  subdued  and 


Lam- 
beth 


RHODE   ISLAND  AND   PROVIDENCE  LOSE  THEIR   LIBERTY.        429 

replenished,  declared,  that  the  people  of  New  England  CHAP 
held   their  lands  "  by  the  grand  charter  from  God." 
And  Andros,  incensed,  bade  him  approve  himself  "  a 
subject  or  a  rebel."     The  lands  reserved  for  the  poor, 
generally    all    common   lands,  were   appropriated    by 
favorites ;  writs  of  intrusion  were  multiplied ;  and  fees, 
amounting,  in  some  cases,  to  one  fourth  the  value  of 
an  estate,  were  exacted  for  granting  a  patent  to  its 
owner.     A  selected  jury  offered  no  relief.     "  Our  condi- 
tion," said  Danforth,  "  is  little  inferior  to  absolute  slave- 
ry ; "  and  the  people  of  Lynn  afterwards  gave  thanks     22- 
to  God  for  their  escape  from  the  worst  of  bondage 
"  The  governor  invaded  liberty  and  property  after  such 
a  manner,"  said  the  temperate  Increase  Mather,  "  as 
no  man  could  say  any  thing  was  his  own." 

The  jurisdiction  of  Andros  had,  from  the  first,  com-  1687. 
prehended  all  New  England.  Against  the  charter  of 
Rhode  Island  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  had  been  issued. 
The  judgment  against  Massachusetts  left  no  hope  of 
protection  from  the  courts,  submissive  to  the  royal  will ; 
and  the  Quakers,  acting  under  instructions  from  the 
towns,  resolved  not  "to  stand  suit,"  but  to  appeal  to  the  J,68^. 

May  a 

conscience  of  the  king  for  the  "  privileges  and  liberties  n  » 

Record! 

granted  by  Charles  II.,  of  blessed  memory."     Flowers 
were  strown  on  the  tomb  of  Nero ;  and  the  colony  of 
Rhode  Island  had  cause  to  bless  the  memory  of  Charles 
II.     Soon  after  the  arrival  of  Andros,  he  demanded  the 
surrender  of  the  charter.     Walter  Clarke,  the  governor,    £££ 
insisted  on  waiting  for  "  a  fitter  season."     Repairing  to 
Rhode  Island,  Andros  dissolved   its   government  and  l^ 
broke  its  seal ;  five  of  its  citizens  were  appointed  mem-     12. 
bers  of  his  council ,  and  a  commission,  irresponsible  to 
the  people,  was  substituted  for  the  suspended  system  of 
freedom.     That  the  magistrates  levied  moderate  taxes, 


430          THE   HALCYON   DAYS  OF  CONNECTICUT  INTERRUPTED. 

CHAP,  payable  in  wool  or  other  produce,  is  evident  from  the 
— ~»_  records.     It  was  pretended  that  the  people  of  Rhode 

Island  were  satisfied,  and  did  not  so  much  as  petition 

for  their  charter  again. 
1687.      In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  Andros,  attended 

Oct. 

26.  by  some  of  his  council,  and  by  an  armed  guard,  set 
MBS."  forth  for  Connecticut,  to  assume  the  government  of 
that  place.  How  unlike  the  march  of  Hooker  and  his 
peaceful  flock !  Dongan  had  in  vain  solicited  the 
people  of  Connecticut  to  submit  to  his  jurisdiction ; 
yet  they  desired,  least  of  all,  to  hazard  the  continuance 
of  liberty  on  the  decision  of  the  dependent  English 
courts.  On  the  third  writ  of  quo  warranto,  the  colony, 
in  a  petition  to  the  king,  asserted  its  chartered  rights, 
yet  desired,  in  any  event,  rather  to  share  the  fortunes 
of  Massachusetts  than  to  be  annexed  to  New  York. 
***•  Andros  found  the  assembly  in  session,  and  demanded 
the  surrender  of  its  charter.  The  brave  Governor 
7?"  Treat  pleaded  earnestly  for  the  cherished  patent,  which 
had  been  purchased  by  sacrifices  and  martyrdoms,  and 
was  endeared  by  halcyon  days.  The  shades  of  evening 
descended  during  the  prolonged  discussion  ;  an  anxious 
crowd  of  farmers  had  gathered  to  witness  the  debate. 
The  charter  lay  on  the  table.  Of  a  sudden,  the  lights 
are  extinguished ;  and,  as  they  are  rekindled,  the  charter 
has  disappeared.  Joseph  Wadsworth,  of  Hartford, 
stealing  noiselessly  through  the  opening  crowd,  con- 
cealed the  precious  parchment  in  the  hollow  of  an  oak, 
am-  which  was  older  than  the  colony,  and  long  remained 
178  to  confirm  the  tale.  Meantime  Andros  assumed  the 
government,  selected  councillors,  and,  demanding  the 
records  of  Connecticut,  to  the  annals  of  its  freedom  set 
the  word  FINIS.  Should  Connecticut  resist,  and  alone 
declare  independence  ?  The  colonists  submitted ;  yet 


CONSOLIDATION  OF  THE  NORTHERN  COLONIES.       431 

their  consciences  were  afterwards  "troubled  at  their  CHAP 

,       „  XVIJ. 

hasty  surrender.  7  ^-v-»~ 

Sewall, 

If  Connecticut  lost  its  liberties,  the  eastern  frontier 
was  depopulated.  An  expedition  against  the  French 
establishments,  which  have  left  a  name  to  Castine, 
roused  the  passions  of  the  neighboring  Indians ;  and 
Andros,  after  a  short  deference  to  the  example  of 
Penn,  made  a  vain  pursuit  of  a  retreating  enemy,  who  J688 
had  for  their  powerful  allies  the  savage  forests  and  the 
inclement  winter. 

Not  long  after  the  first  excursion  to  the  east,  the   My. 
whole  seaboard  from  Maryland  to  the  St.  Croix  was 
united  in  one  extensive  despotism.     The  entire  do- 
minion, of  which  Boston,  the  largest  English  town  in 
the  New  World,  was  the  capital,  was  abandoned  to 
Andros,  its  governor-general,  and  to  Randolph,  its  sec- 
retary, with  his  needy  associates.     But  the  impover- 
ished country  disappointed  avarice.     The  eastern  part 
of  Maine  had  already  been  pillaged  by  agents,  who  had 
been — it  is  Randolph's  own  statement — "  as  arbitrary 
as  the  Grand  Turk ; "  and  in  New  York  also,  there 
was,   as  Randolph  expressed  it,    "  little  good    to  be  n 
done,"  for  its  people  "  had  been  squeezed  dry  by  Don-    °$- 
gan."     But,  on  the  arrival  of  the   new   commission, 

Julv 

Andros  hastened  to  the  south  to  supersede  his  hated     30. 
rival,  and  assume  the  government  of  New  York  and 
New  Jersey. 

The   spirit   which   led   forth  the  colonies  of  New  1687 

1  ftftfl 

England,  kept  their  liberties  alive ;  in  the  general 
gloom,  the  ministers  preached  sedition,  and  planned 
resistance.  Once  at  least,  to  the  great  anger  of  the 
governor,  they  put  by  thanksgiving ;  and  at  private  s^aa 
fasts  they  besought  the  Lord  to  repent  himself  for  his 
servants,  whose  power  was  gone.  The  enlightened 


432  INSURGENT  SPIRIT  OF  THE  MINISTERS 

CHAP   Moody  refused  to  despair,  confident  that  God  would 

./v  VII. 

*— v^-   yet  "  be  exalted  among  the  heathen." 

|    £*  Q  Q 

On  the  Lord's  day,  which  was  to  have  been  the 
day  of  thanksgiving  for  the  queen's  pregnancy,  the 
church  was  much  grieved  at  the  weakness  of  Allen, 
who,  from  the  literal  version  of  the  improved  Bay 
Psalm  Book,  gave  out, — 

"  Jehovah,  in  thy  strength  The  king  shall  joyfi  .  be, 

And  joy  in  thy  salvation,  How  vehemently  shall  hee  ! 

Thou  granted  hast  to  him  That  which  his  heart  desired, 

And  thou  hast  not  withholden  back  That  which  his  lips  required." 

But  Willard,  while,  before  prayer,  he  read,  among  many 
other  notices,  the  occasion  of  the  governor's  gratitude, 
and,  after  Puritan  usage,  interceded  largely  for  the  king, 
"otherwise  altered  not  his  course  one  jot,"  and,  as  the 
crisis  drew  near,  goaded  the  people  with  the  text,  "  Ye 
have  not  yet  resisted  unto  blood,  warring  against  sin." 
Yet  desperate  measures  were  postponed,  that  one  of 
the  ministers  might  make  an  appeal  to  the  king ;  and 
Increase  Mather,  escaping  the  vigilance  of  Randolph, 
was  already  embarked  on  the  dangerous  mission  for 
redress.  But  relief  came  from  a  revolution  of  which 
the  influence  was  to  pervade  the  European  world. 
1660  On  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  the  Puritan  or  re- 
1688.  publican  element  lost  ajl  hope  of  gaining  dominion ; 
and  the  history  of  England,  during  its  next  period,  is 
but  the  history  of  the  struggle  for  a  compromise  be- 
tween the  republican  and  the  monarchical  principle 
The  contest  for  freedom  was  continued,  yet  within 
limits  so  narrow  as  never  to  endanger  the  existence,  or 
even  question  the  right,  of  monarchy  itself.  The  peo- 
ple had  attempted  a  democratic  revolution,  and  had 
failed;  it  was  now  willing  to  wait  and  watch  the 


MINISTRY  OF  CLARENDON.  433 

movements  of  the   property   of  the  country,  and,  no  CHAP 
longer  struggling  to  control  events,  ranged  itself  gen-  —-*•»!. 
erally,  yet  without  enthusiasm,  on  the  side  of  the  more 
liberal  and  tolerant  party  of  the  aristocracy. 

The  ministry  of  Clarendon,  the  first  after  the  resto-  1660 
ration,  acknowledged  the  indefeasible  sovereignty  of  the  16^7 
king,  and  sought  in  the  prelates  and  high  nobility  the 
natural  allies  to  the  royal  prerogative.  Its  policy,  not 
destitute  of  honest  nationality,  nor  wholly  regardless  of 
English  liberties,  yet  renewed  intolerance,  and,  while  it 
respected  a  balance  of  powers,  claimed  the  preponder- 
ance for  the  monarch.  But  twenty  years  of  freedom 
had  rendered  the  dominion  of  the  Church  of  England 
impossible.  England  was  dissatisfied  ;  ceasing  to  de- 
sire a  republic,  she  still  demanded  greater  security  for 
freedom.  But  as  no  general  election  for  parliament  was 
held,  a  change  of  ministry  could  be  effected  only  by  a 
faction  within  the  palace.  The  royal  council  sustained 
Clarendon  ;  the  rakes  about  court,  railing  at  his  morose- 
ness,  echoed  the  popular  clamor  against  him.  His  over- 
throw "  was  certainly  designed  in  Lady  Castlemaine's 
chamber  ;  "  and,  as  he  retired  at  noonday  from  the  au- 
dience of  dismission,  she  ran  undressed  from  her  bed  into 
her  aviary,  to  enjoy  the  spectacle  of  the  fallen  minister, 
and  "  bless  herself,  at  the  old  man's  going  away."  The  P«P>«- 
gallants  of  Whitehall  crowded  to  "  talk  to  her  in  her 
bird-cage."  —  "You,"  said  they  to  her,  as  they  glanced 
at  the  retiring  chancellor,  "you  are  the  bird  of  passage." 


The    administration  of  the    king's   cabal  followed. 

tn 

England  had  demanded  a  liberal  ministry  ;  it  obtained  a  1671 
dissolute  one  :  it  had  demanded  a  ministry  not  enslaved 
to  prelacy  ;  it  obtained  one  indifferent  to  all  religion, 
and  careless  of  every  thing  but  pleasure.  Buckingham, 
the  noble  buffoon  at  its  head,  debauched  other  men's 
VOL.  n.  55 


434          MINISTRY  OF  BUCKINGHAM  AND  THE  KING'S  CABAL. 

CHAP,  wives,  fought  duels,  and  kept  about  him  a  train  of  vo- 
^-v^-  luptuaries ;  but  he  was  not,  like  Clarendon,  a  tory  by 
16to8   sJstem  '  far  fr°m  building  up  the  exclusive  Church  of 
1671.  England,  he  ridiculed  bishops  as  well  as  sermons;  and 
when  the  Quakers  went  to  him  with  their  hats  on,  to 
discourse  on  the  equal  rights  of  every  conscience,  he 
*»«n     told  them,  that  he  was  at  heart  in  favor  of  their  princi- 
ple.   English  honor  was  wrecked ;  English  finances  be- 
came bankrupt ;  but  the  progress  of  the  nation  towards 
internal  freedom  was  no  longer  opposed  with  steadfast 
consistency  ;  and  England  was  better  satisfied  than  it 
had  been  with  the  wise  and  virtuous  Clarendon. 

As  the  tendency  of  the  cabal  became  apparent,  a 
new  division  necessarily  followed :  the  king  was  sur- 
rounded by  men  who  still  desired  to  uphold  the  pre- 
rogative, and  stay  the  movement  of  the  age  ;  while 
1671  Shaftesbury,  always  consistent  in  his  purpose,  "unwill- 
1673.  ing  to  hurt  the  king,  yet  desiring  to  keep  him  tame  in 
a  cage ; "  averse  to  the  bishops,  because  the  bishops 
would  place  prerogative  above  liberty  ;  averse  to  de- 
mocracy, because  democracy  would  substitute  freedom 
for  privilege, — in  organizing  a  party,  afterwards  known 
as  the  whig  party,  suited  himself  to  the  spirit  of  the 
times.  It  was  an  age  of  progress  towards  liberty  of 
conscience  ;  Shaftesbury  favored  toleration  :  it  was  an 
age  when  the  vast  increase  of  commercial  activity 
claimed  for  the  moneyed  interest  an  influence  in  the 
government ;  Shaftesbury  always  lent  a  willing  ear  to 
the  merchants.  Commerce  and  Protestant  toleration 
were  the  elements  of  his  power  over  the  public  mind. 
He  did  not  so  much  divide  dominion  with  the  merchants 
and  the  Presbyterians,  as  act  as  their  patron ;  hav'aig 
ju*ke.  himself  for  his  main  object  to  keep  "  the  bucket"  ol 
1673  the  aristocracy  from  sinking.  The  declaration  of  in 


SHAFTESBURY  LORD   CHANCELLOR.  435 


diligence,   an    act   of  high    prerogative,   yet   directed  CHAP 
against  the  friends  of  prerogative,  was  his  measure.  ^^ 
Immediately  freedom  of  conscience  awakened  in  Eng-  ^3"^ 
lish  industry  unparalleled  energies,  and   Shaftesbury, 
the  skeptic  chancellor,  was  eulogized  as  the  savior  of 
religion.     Had  the  king  been  firm,  the  measure  would 
probably  have  succeeded.     The  king-  wavered  ;  for  he 
feared  the  dissenters:  the  Presbyterians  wavered  also; 
for  how  could  they  be  satisfied  with  relief  dependent 
on  the   royal   pleasure  ?     The  seal  of  the  declaration 
was  broken  in  the  king's  presence  ;  and  Shaftesbury, 
confiding  no  longer  in  the  favor  of  his  fickle  sovereign, 
courted   a  popular  party  by  securing  the  passage  of  a 
test  act  against  Papists,  and  advocating  with  power  a 
bill  for  the  ease  of  Protestant  dissenters.     Shaftesbury  1573 
fell. 

Under  the  Lord  Treasurer  Danby,  the  old  Cavaliers  1673 
recovered  power.  It  was  the  day  for  statues  to  jgy9 
Charles  I.,  and  new  cathedrals.  To  win  strength  for 
his  party  from  the  favor  of  Protestant  opinion,  Danby 
avowed  his  willingness  to  aid  in  crushing  Popery,  and 
he  gave  his  influence  to  the  Popish  plot.  But  Shaftes- 
bury was  already  sure  of  the  merchants  and  dissenters. 
"  Let  the  treasurer,"  exclaimed  the  fallen  chancellor, 
"  cry  as  loud  as  he  pleases  ;  I  will  cry  a  note  louder, 
and  soon  take  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  plot  ;  "  and, 
indifferent  to  perjuries  and  judicial  murders,  he  was 
successful.  In  the  subservient  house  of  commons, 
there  were  many  corrupt  members  who  would  never 
have  been  elected  but  in  the  first  fit  of  loyalty  at  the 
restoration.  Danby  preferred  the  unfitness  of  a  per- 
petual parliament  to  the  hazard  of  a  new  election,  and, 
by  pensions  and  rewards,  purchased  the  votes  of  the 
profligate.  But  knavery  has  a  wisdom  of  its  own  ;  the 


436      SHAFTESBURY  COMPELS  AN  APPOINTMENT  FROM  THE  KING 

CHAP,  profligate  members  had  a  fixed  maxim,  never  to  grant 

— v^  so  much  at  once  that  they  should  cease  to  be  wanted  ; 

and,  discovering  the  intrigues  of  Danby  for  a  permanent 

revenue  from  France,  they  were  honorably  true  to  na- 

1679   tirtnality,  and  true  also  to  the  base  instinct  of  selfishness* 

Jan-    they  impeached  the  minister.     To  save  the  ministci, 

this  longest  of  English  parliaments  was  dissolved. 

When,  after  nineteen  years,  the  people  of  England 
were  once  more  allowed  to  elect  representatives,  the 
great  majority  against  the  court  compelled  a  reorgani- 
zation of  the  ministry ;  and,  by  the  force  of  public 
opinion,  and  of  parliament,  Shaftesbury,  whom,  for  his 
mobility  and  his  diminutive  stature,   the   king  called 
A   .,    Little   Sincerity,  compelled  the  reluctant  monarch  to 
21.     appoint  him  lord  president  of  the  council.     The  event 
is  an  era  in  English  history.     Ministers  had  been  im- 
peached and  driven  from  office  by  the  commons.     It 
is  the  distinction  of  Shaftesbury,  that  he  was  the  first 
statesman  to  attain  the  guidance  of  a  ministry  through 
parliament  by  means  of  an  organized  party,  and  against 
the  wishes  of  the  king.     In  the  cabinet,  the  bill  of  ex- 
clusion of  the  duke  of  York  from  the  succession  was 
demanded  ;  a  bill  for  that  purpose  was  introduced  into 
the  house  of  commons  ;  and  it  was  observed,  that  the 
young  men  cried  up  every  measure  against  the  duke  ; 
("MS!"  "  like  so  many  young  spaniels,  that  run  and  bark  at 
every  lark  that  springs." — "  The  axe,"  wrote  Charles, 
"  is  laid  to  the  root ;  and  monarchy  must  go  down  too, 
or  bow  exceeding  low  before  the  almighty  power  oi 
x         parliament ; "    and    just   after    Shaftesbury,   who,  as 
•   chancellor,  had  opened    the  prison-doors  of  Bunyan, 
jamei,    now»   as  president  of  the  council,  had  procured  the 
1679.  passage  of  the  habeas  corpus  act,  the  commons  were 
^    prorogued  and   dissolved.     Shaftesbury  was  displaced, 


THE   ARISTOCRATIC   SHAFTESBURY  A   DEMAGOGUE.  437 

and  henceforward  the  councils  of  the  Stuarts  inclined  CHAP 

i     i  <.-  xvn- 

to  absolutism.  ^-v^ 

Immediately  universal  agitation  roused  the  spirit  of    Penn, 
the  nation.  Under  the  influence  of  Shaftesbury's  genius,  IG79 
on  Queen  Elizabeth's  night,  a  vast  procession,  bear- 
ing devices  and   wax  figures  representing  nuns   and 
monks,  bishops  in  copes  and  mitres,  and  also — it  should 
be  observed,  for  it  proves  how  much  the  Presbyterians 
were  courted — bishops  in  lawn,  cardinals  in  red  caps, 
and,  las.  ->f  all,  the  pope  of  Rome,  side  by  side  in  a 
litter  with  the    devil,  moved    through  the  streets   of 
London,  under  the  glare  of  thousands  of  flambeaux, 
and  in  the  presence  of  two  hundred  thousand  specta- 
tors ;  the  disobedient  Monmouth  was  welcomed  with 
bonfires  and  peals  of  bells  ;  a  panic  was  created,  as  if 
every  Protestant  freeman  were  to  be  massacred,  every 
wife  and  daughter  to  be  violated  ;  the  kingdom  was 
divided  into  districts  among  committees  to  procure  pe- 
titions   for   a   parliament,   one   of  which  had  twenty 
thousand  signatures,  and  measured  three  hundred  feet; 
and  at  last  the  most  cherished  Anglo-Saxon  institution 
was  made  to  do  service,  when  Shaftesbury,  proceeding 
to  Westminster,    represented   to  the    grand  jury  the 
mighty  dangers  from  Popery,  indicted  the  duke  of  York 
as  a  recusant,  and  reported  the  duchess  of  Portsmouth, 
the  king's  new  mistress,  as  "  a  common  neusance." 
The  extreme  agitation  was  successful ;  and  in  two  sue-    Oct. 
cessive  parliaments,  in  each  of  which  men  who  were  at  IGSI 
heart  dissenters  had  the  majority,  the  bill  for  excluding         ' 
the  duke  of  York  was   passed  by  triumphant  votes  in    Penn 
the  house  of  commons,  and  defeated  only  by  the  lords 
and  the  king. 

But  the   public   mind,  firm,  even  to  superstition,  in 
Its  respect  for  hereditary  succession,  was  not  ripe  for 


438  DESPOTISM  IN  ENGLAND 

CHAP,  the  measure  of  exclusion.     After  less  than  a  week's 

-— v-^.  session,  Charles  II.  dissolved  the  last  parliament  of  lus 

1681.  reign,  and  appealed  to  the  people  against  his  enemies. 

21  to    To  avoid  the  charge  of  despotism,  he  still  hanged  a 

Papist  whom  he  knew  to  be  innocent ;  and  his  friends 

declared   him   to  have  no  other  purpose  than  to  resist 

the  arbitrary  sway  of  "  a  republican  prelacy,"  and  the 

installation  of  the  multitude  in  the  chair  of  infallibility. 

The  ferocious  intolerance  which  had  sustained  the  Popish 

plot,    lost  its  credit;  men  dreaded    anarchy  and  civil 

war  more  than  they  feared  the  royal  prerogative. 

The  king  had  already  exercised  the  power  of  restrict- 
ing the  liberty  of  the  press  ;  through  judges,  who  held 
places  at  his  pleasure,  he  was  supreme  in  the  courts  ; 
omitting  to  convoke  parliament,  he  made  himself 
irresponsible  to  the  people  ;  pursuing  a  judicial  war- 
fare against  city  charters  and  the  monopolies  of 
boroughs,  he  reformed  many  real  abuses,  but,  at  the 
same  time,  subjected  the  corporations  to  his  influ- 
ence. Controlling  the  appointment  of  sheriffs,  he  con- 
trolled the  nomination  of  juries  ;  and  thus,  in  the  last 
three  or  four  years  of  the  reign  of  King  Charles  II.,  the 
government  of  England  was  administered  as  an  absolute 
monarchy.  An  "association"  against  the  duke  of 
York  could  not  succeed  among  a  calculating  aristocra- 
cy, as  the  Scottish  covenant  had  done  among  a  faithful 
people  ;  and,  on  its  disclosure  and  defeat,  the  voluntary 
exile  of  Shaftesbury  excited  no  plebeian  regret.  No 
deep  popular  indignation  attended  Russel  to  the  scaf- 
fold ;  and  on  the  day  on  which  the  purest  martyr  to  aris- 
tocratic liberty  laid  his  head  on  the  block,  the  university 
of  Oxford  decreed  absolute  obedience  to  be  the  char- 
acter of  the  Church  of  England,  while  parts  of  the 
writings  of  Knox,  Milton,  and  Baxter,  were  pronounced 


JAMES   II.   SUCCEEDS   WITHOUT   SERIOUS  OPPOSITION.  439 

"  false,  seditious  and  impious,  heretical  and  blasphe-  CHAP. 

XVII 

mous,  infamous  to  the  Christian  religion,  and  destruc-  -~~^> 

tive  of  all  government , "  and  were  therefore  ordered  to 

be  burnt.     Algernon  Sidney  followed  to  the  scaffold.      Dec.?' 

Thus  liberty,  which  excited  loyalty,  at  the  restora- 
tion, banished  from  among  the  people,  made  its  way 
through  rakes  and  the  king's  mistress  into  the  royal 
councils.  Driven  from  the  palace,  it  appealed  to  par- 
liament and  the  people,  and  won  power  through  the 
fienzied  antipathy  to  Roman  Catholics.  Exiled  from 
parliament  by  their  dissolution,  from  the  people  by  the 
ebb  of  excitement,  it  concealed  itself  in  an  aristocratic 
association  and  a  secret  aristocratic  council.  Chased 
from  its  hiding-place  by  disclosures  and  executions, 
and  having  no  hope  from  parliament,  people,  the  press, 
the  courts  of  justice,  the  king,  it  left  the  soil  of  Eng- 
land, and  fled  for  refuge  to  the  country  of  the  prince 
of  Orange. 

How  entirely  monarchy  had  triumphed  in  England,  169  % 
appeared  on  the  death  of  Charles  II.  His  brother, 
whom  the  commons,  in  three  successive  parliaments, 
had  desired  to  exclude,  ascended  the  throne  without 
opposition,  continued  taxes  by  his  prerogative,  easily 
suppressed  the  insurrection  of  Monmouth,  convened  a 
parliament,  under  the  new  system  of  charters,  so  subser- 
vient, that  it  bowed  its  back  to  royal  chastisement ; 
while  the  "  Presbyterian  rascals,"  the  troublesome 
Calvinists,  who,  from  the  days  of  Edward  VI.,  had  kept 
English  liberty  alive,  were  consigned  to  the  courts  cf 
Jaw.  "  Richard,"  said  JefTeries  to  Baxter,  "  Richard, 
thou  art  an  old  knave  ;  thou  hast  written  books  enough 
to  load  a  cart,  every  one  as  full  of  sedition  as  an  egg 
is  full  of  meat.  I  know  thou  hast  a  mighty  party,  and 
a  great  many  of  the  brotherhood  are  waiting  in  corners 


440  THE  PRESBYTERIANS  TAKE  PART  WITH  THE  WHIGS 

CHAP,  to  see  what  will  become  of  their  mighty  Don  ;  but,  by 

'*  the  grace  of  Almighty  God,  I'll  crush  you  all ; "  and 

the  docile  jury  found  "  the  main  incendiary  "  guilty  of 
sedition.  Faction  had  ebbed;  "rogues"  had  grown 
out  of  fashion ;  there  was  nothing  left  for  them  but  to 
"  thrive  in  the  plantations  "  of  our  America,  and  learn, 
said  the  royalists, 

"  How  Pennsylvania's  air  agrees  with  Quakers, 
And  Carolina's  with  Associators ; 
Both  e'en  too  good  for  madmen  and  for  traitors. 
Truth  is,  the  land  with  saints  is  so  run  o'er, 
And  every  age  produces  such  a  store, 
That  now  there's  need  of  two  New  Englands  more." 

But  the  tide  of  liberty  was  still  swelling,  and  soon 
wafted  the  "  saints,"  and  "  rogues,"  and  "  rascals,"  to 
their  deliverance. 

To  understand  fully  the  revolution  which  followed, 
it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  great  mass  of  dis- 
senters were  struggling  for  liberty  ;  but,  checked  by  the 
memory  of  the  disastrous  issue  of  the  previous  revolu- 
tion, they  ranged  themselves,  with  deliberate  modera- 
tion, under  the  more  liberal  party  of  the  aristocracy.  Of 
Cromwell's  army,  the  officers  had  been,  "  for  the  most 
part,  the  meanest  sort  of  men,  even  brewers,  coblers, 
and  other  mechanics ; "  recruits  for  the  camp  of  Wil- 
liam of  Orange  were  led  by  bishops  and  the  high 
nobility.  There  was  a  vast  popular  movement,  but  it 
was  subordinate ;  the  proclamation  of  the  prince  took 
notice  of  the  people  only  as  "  followers  "  of  the  gentry. 
Yet  the  revolution  of  1688  is  due  to  the  dissenters 
quite  as  much  as  to  the  whig  aristocracy ;  to  Baxter 
hardly  less  than  to  Shaftesbury.  It  is  the  consummation 
of  the  collision  which,  in  the  days  of  Henry  VIII.  and 
Edward,  began  between  the  Churchmen  and  the  Puri- 


THE  PARTIES  OF  THE  ARISTOCRACY.  441 

tans,  between  those  who  invoked  religion  on  the  side  CHAP 

XVII 

of  passive  obedience,  and  those  who  esteemed  religion  —  ^ 
superior  to  man,  and  held  resistance  to  tyranny  a 
Christian  duty.  If  the  whig  aristocracy  looked  to  the 
stadtholder  of  aristocratic  Holland  as  the  protector  of 
their  liberties,  Baxter  and  the  Presbyterians  saw  in 
William  the  Calvinist  their  tolerant  avenger. 

Of  the  two  great  aristocratic  parties  which  led  the 
politics  of  England,  both  respected  the  established 
British  constitution.  But  the  tory  opposed  reform,  and 
leaned  to  the  past ;  he  defended  his  privileges  against 
the  encroachments  of  advancing  civilization.  The 
bishops,  claiming  for  themselves  a  divine  right  by  direct 
succession,  were  his  natural  allies ;  an(J  to  assert  the 
indefeasible  rights  of  the  bishops,  of  the  aristocracy, 
and  of  the  king,  against  dissenters,  republicans,  and 
whigs,  was  his  whole  purpose. 

The  whigs  were  also  a  party  of  the  aristocracy,  bent 
on  the  preservation  of  their  privileges  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  monarch.  In  an  age  that  de- 
manded liberty,  the  whigs,  scarce  proposing  new 
enfranchisements,  gathered  up  every  liberty,  feudal  or 
popular,  known  to  English  law,  and  sanctioned  by  the 
fictitious  compact  of  prescription.  In  a  period  of 
progress  in  the  enfranchisement  of  classes,  they  shared 
political  influence  with  the  merchants  and  bankers  ;  in 
an  age  of  religious  sects,  they  embraced  the  more 
moderate  and  liberal  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
those  of  the  dissenters  whose  dissent  was  the  least 
glaring ;  in  an  age  of  speculative  inquiry,  they  favored 
freedom  of  the  press.  How  vast  was  the  party,  is  evi- 
dent, since  it  cherished  among  its  numbers  men  so  op- 
posite as  Shaftesbury  and  Sidney,  as  Locke  and  Baxter. 

These  two  parties  embraced  almost  all  the  wealth 
VOL.  IT.  56 


44-2      THE  PARTY  OF  EQUAL  FREEDOM  OF  CONSCIENCE. 

CHAP,  and  learning  of  England.  But  there  was  a  third  party 
— ~*^-  of  those  who  were  pledged  to  "  seek,  and  love,  and 
chuse  the  best  things."  They  insisted  that  all  penal 
statutes  and  tests  should  be  abolished  ;  that,  for  all 
classes  of  nonconformists,  whether  Roman  Catholics 
or  dissenters,  for  the  plebeian  sects,  "  the  less  noble 
PBM  and  more  clownish  sort  of  people,"  "  the  unclean 
kind,"  room  should  equally  be  made  in  the  English 
ark ;  that  the  Church  of  England,  content  with  its 
estates,  should  give  up  jails,  whips,  halters,  and  gibbets, 
and  cease  to  plough  the  deep  furrows  of  persecution ; 
that  the  concession  of  equal  freedom  would  give 
strength  to  the  state,  security  to  the  prince,  con- 
tent to  the  multitude,  wealth  to  the  country,  and 
would  fit  England  for  its  office  of  asserting  European 
liberty  against  the  ambition  of  France  ;  that  reason, 
natural  right,  and  public  interest,  demanded  a  glorious 
magna  charta  for  intellectual  freedom,  even  though  the 
grant  should  be  followed  by  "  a  dissolution  of  the  great 
corporation  of  conscience."  These  were  the  views 
which  were  advocated  by  William  Penn  against  what 
he  calls  "  the  prejudices  of  his  times ; "  arid  which 
overwhelmed  his  name  with  obloquy  as  a  friend  to 
tyranny  and  a  Jesuit  priest  in  disguise. 
1685,  But  the  easy  issue  of  the  contest  grew  out  of  a 

I  ADA 

'  division  in  the  monarchical  party  itself.  James  II. 
could  not  comprehend  the  value  of  freedom,  or  the 
obligation  of  law.  The  writ  of  habeas  corpus  he 
esteemed  inconsistent  with  monarchy,  and  "  a  great 
misfortune  to  the  people."  A  standing  army,  and  the 
terrors  of  corrupt  tribunals,  were  his  dependence  ;  the 
pupil  of  Turenne  delighted  in  military  parades  ;  the 
Catholic  convert,  swayed  by  his  confessor,  dispensed 
with  the  kws,  multiplied  Catholic  chapels,  rejoiced  in 


THE   EUROPEAN    REVOLUTION    OF  1688.  4-43 

the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz,  and  sought  to  CHAP. 

XVII 

intrust  civil  and  military  power  to  the  hands  of  Roman  — v^- 
Catholics. 

The  bishops  had  unanimously  voted  against  his  ex- 
clusion ;  and,  as  :ne  badge  of  the  Church  of  England 
was  obedience,  he  for  a  season  courted  the  alliance 
of  "  the  fairest  of  the  spotted  kind,"  the  only  tol- 
erable Protestant  sect.  To  win  her  favor  for  Roman 
Catholics,  he  was  willing  to  persecute  Protestant  dis- 
senters. This  is  the  period  of  the  influence  of  Roch- 
ester. 

The  Church  of  England  refused  the  alliance.    The  1687 

1   f*Q  Q 

king  would  now  put  no  confidence  in  any  zealous 
Protestant ;  he  applauded  the  bigotry  of  Louis  XIV., 
from  whom  he  solicited  money.  "  I  hope,"  said  he, 
"  the  king  of  France  will  aid  me,  and  that  we  together 
shall  do  great  things  for  religion  ; "  and  the  established 
church  became  the  object  of  his  implacable  hatred. 
"  Her  day  of  grace  was  past."  The  royal  favor  was 
withheld,  that  it  might  silently  waste  and  dissolve  like 
snows  in  spring.  To  diminish  its  numbers,  and  ap- 
parently from  no  other  motive,  he  granted — what  Sun- 
derland  might  have  done  from  indifference,  and  Penn 
from  love  of  justice — equal  franchises  to  every  sect ; 
to  the  powerful  Calvinist  and  to  the  "puny"  Quaker, 
to  Anabaptists  and  Independents,  and  "  all  the  wild 
increase"  which  unsatisfied  inquiry  could  generate. 
The  declaration  of  indulgence  was  esteemed  a  death- 
blow to  the  church,  and  a  forerunner  of  the  reconciliation 
of  England  to  Rome.  The  established  franchises  of 
Oxford  were  invaded,  that  its  rich  endowments  might 
be  shared  among  the  Catholics  ;  the  bishops  were  im- 
prisoned, because  they  would  not  publish  in  their 
churches  the  declaration,  of  which  the  purpose  was 


THE  EUROPEAN  REVOLUTION  OF  1683. 

CHAP  their  defeat ;  and,  that  the  system  of  tyranny  might 
-— v^,  be  perpetuated,  Heaven,  as  the  monarch  believed, 
blessed  his  pious  pilgrimage  to  St.  Winifred's  Well,  by 
the  pregnancy  of  his  wife  and  the  birth  of  a  son.  The 
party  of  prerogative  was  trampled  under  foot ;  arid,  in 
their  despair,  they  looked  abroad  for  the  liberty  which 
they  themselves  had  assisted  to  exile.  The  obedient 
Church  of  England  set  the  example  of  rebellion. 
Thus  are  the  divine  counsels  perfected.  "  What  think 
you  now  of  predestination  ?  "  demanded  William,  as  he 
landed  in  England.  Tories  took  the  lead  in  inviting 
1688  the  prince  of  Orange  to  save  the  English  church;  the 
whigs  joined  to  rescue  the  privileges  of  the  nobility  ; 
the  Presbyterians  rushed  eagerly  into  the  only  safe 
avenue  to  toleration ;  the  people  quietly  acquiesced. 
King  James  was  left  alone  in  his  palace.  His  terrified 
priests  escaped  to  the  continent;  Sunderland  was  al 
ways  false  ;  his  confidential  friends  betrayed  him ;  his 
daughter  Anne,  pleading  conscience,  proved  herself 
one  of  his  worst  enemies.  "  God  help  me,"  exclaimed 
the  disconsolate  father,  bursting  into  tears,  "  my  very 
children  have  forsaken  me ; "  and  his  grief  was  in- 
creased by  losing  a  piece  of  the  true  wood  of  the  cross, 
that  had  belonged  to  Edward  the  Confessor.  Para- 
lyzed by  the  imbecility  of  doubt,  and  destitute  of  coun- 
sellors, the  good  soul  fled  beyond  the  sea,  and  gave  up 
three  kingdoms  for  a  mass.  Aided  by  falsehoods,  the 
prince  of  Orange,  without  striking  a  blow,  ascended 
the  throne  of  his  father-in-law,  and  Mary,  by  whose 
dishonest  letters  James  was  lulled  into  security,  came 
over  exultingly  to  occupy  the  throne,  the  palace,  and 
the  bed  of  her  father,  and  sequester  the  inheritance  of 
her  brother. 

Thus  were  the  rights  of  Englishmen  rescued  from 


THE   REVOLUTION   IN   NEW   ENGLAND.  445 

danger  ;  thus  did  Protestant  liberty,  after  a  long  strug-  CHAP 
gle,  achieve  its  triumph,  and  put  an  end  forever  to  — ^~ 
absolute  power,  in  England,  in  the  state  and  over  mind. 

Nolumus  leges  Anglicc  mutari  blazed  in  golden  let- 
ters on  the  standard  of  the  rejoicing  aristocracy,  desir- 
ing tD  give  immortality  to  their  privileges.  Humanity 
was  present  also,  and  rejoiced  at  the  redemption  of 
English  liberties  ;  she  reproved  the  unnatural  conduct 
of  daughters  who  drove  their  father  into  poverty  and 
exile ;  she  sighed  for  the  Roman  Catholics  who  were 
oppressed,  for  the  dissenters  who  were  but  tolerated ; 
and  as,  on  the  evening  of  the  long  struggle  which  had 
been  bequeathed  by  Rogers  and  Hooper,  and  had  lasted 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half,  she  selected  a  resting- 
place,  it  was  but  to  gather  strength,  with  the  fixed 
purpose  of  renewing  her  journey  on  the  dawn  of 
morning. 

The  great  news  of  the  invasion  of  England,  and  the  1689 
declaration  of  the  prince  of  Orange,  reached  Boston  on 
the  fourth  day  of  April,  1689.     The  messenger  was 
immediately  imprisoned  ;  but  his  message  could  not  be 
suppressed ;  and  "  the  preachers  had  already  matured 
the  evil  design  "  of  a  revolution.     For  the  events  that    i 
followed  were  "  not  a  violent  passion  of  the  rabble,  but    MSB- 
a  long-contrived  piece  of  wickedness." 

"  There  is  a  general   buzzing  among  the   people,    April 
great  with  expectation  of  their  old  charter,  or   they 
know  not  what ; "  such  was  the  ominous  message  of 
Andros    to   Brockholt,  with  orders  that   the    soldiers 
should  be  ready  for  action. 

About  nine  o'clock  of  the  morning  of  the  18th,  just  as   Apii] 

18 

George,  the  commander  of  the  Rose  frigate,  stepped  on 
shore,  Green  and  the  Boston  ship-carpenters  gathered 
about  him,  and  made  him  a  prisoner.  The  town  took  the 


446  THE  REVOLUTION  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. 

CHAP  alarm.     The   royalist  sheriff  endeavored  to  quiet  the 

^wVll.  f 

— ^  multitude;  and  at  once   the   multitude  arrested    him. 

1689   They  next  hastened  to   the   major  of   the   regiment, 
and  demanded  colors  and  drums.     He  resisted  ;   they 
threatened.     The  crowd  increased ;  companies  form  un 
der  Nelson,  Foster,  Waterhouse,  their  old  officers ;  and 

^    already  at  ten  they  seize  Bullivant,  Foxcroft,  and   Ra- 

?df  venscraft.  Boys  ran  along  the  streets  with  clubs  ;  the 
drums  beat :  the  governor,  with  his  creatures,  resisted 
in  council,  withdrew  to  the  fort  to  desire  a  conference 
with  the  ministers  and  two  or  three  more.  The  con- 
ference was  declined.  All  the  companies  soon  rallied 
at  the  town-house.  Just  then,  the  last  governor  of  the 
colony,  in  office  when  the  charter  was  abrogated, 
Simon  Bradstreet,  glorious  with  the  dignity  of  four- 
score years  and  seven,  one  of  the  early  emigrants,  a 
magistrate  in  1630,  whose  experience  connected  the 
oldest  generation  with  the  new,  drew  near  the  town- 
house,  and  was  received  by  a  great  shout  from  the  free- 
men. The  old  magistrates  were  reinstated,  as  a  council 
of  safety  ;  the  whole  town  rose  in  arms,  "  with  the 
most  unanimous  resolution  that  ever  inspired  a  people ; " 
and  a  Declaration,  read  from  the  balcony,  defended  the 
insurrection  as  a  duty  to  God  and  the  country.  "  We 
commit  our  enterprise,"  it  was  added,  "  to  Him  who 
hears  the  cry  of  the  oppressed,  and  advise  all  our 
neighbors,  for  whom  we  have  thus  ventured  ourselves, 
to  joyn  with  us  in  prayers  and  all  just  actions  for  the 
defence  of  the  land." 

On  Charlestown  side,  a  thousand  soldiers  crowded 
together ;  and  the  multitude  would  have  been  larger 
if   needed.      The    governor,    vainly     attempting     to 
escape  to  the  frigate,  was,  with  his   creatures,    com 
pelled   to   seek   protection    by    submission ;    through 


REVOLUTION   IN   THE   OLD   COLONY.  447 

the    streets  where    he    had   first  displayed    his    scar-  CHAH 

XVII 

let  coat  and  arbitrary  commission,  he  and  his  fellows  -—  --*- 


were    marched    to    the    town-house,    and    thence    to 

Apnl 

prison.  19. 

On  the  next  day,  the  country  came  swarming  across 
the  Charlestown  and  Chelsea  ferries,  headed  by  Shep- 
herd, a  schoolmaster  of  Lynn.  All  the  cry  was  against  Lan>- 

J  J  beth 

Andros    and  Randolph.     The  castle  was  taken  ;  the    i^f 
frigate  was  mastered  ;  the  fortifications  were  occupied. 

How  should  a  new  government  be  instituted  ?  Town- 
meetings,  before  news  had  arrived  of  the  proclamation 
of  William  and  Mary,  were  held  throughout  the  colony. 
Of  fifty-four  towns,  forty  certainly,  probably  more, 
voted  to  reassume  the  old  charter.  Representatives 
were  chosen  ;  and  once  more  Massachusetts  assembled 
in  general  court. 

It  is  but  a  short  ride  from  Boston  to  Plymouth. 
Already,  on  the  twenty-second  of  April,  Nathaniel  22. 
Clark,  the  agent  of  Andros,  was  in  jail  ;  Hinckley  re- 
sumed the  government,  and  the  children  of  the  Pil- 
grims renewed  the  constitution  which  had  been  unani- 
mously signed  in  the  Mayflower.  But  not  one  of  the 
fathers  of  the  old  colony  remained  alive.  John  Alden, 
the  last  survivor  of  the  signers,  famed  for  his  frugal 
habits,  and  an  arm  before  whLh  forests  had  bowed, 
was  silent  in  death.  The  days  of  the  Pilgrims  were 
over,  and  a  new  generation  possessed  the  soil. 

The    royalists    had    pretended    that     "  the    Quaker    ^™- 
grandees"  of  Rhode   Island  had   imbibed   nothing  of    "«! 
Quakerism  but  its  indifference  to  forms,  and  did  not  even 
desire  a  restoration  of  the  charter.     On  May-day,  their    May 
usual  election-day,  the  inhabitants  and  freemen  poured 
into  Newport  ;  and  the  whole  "democratic"  published 


448    1HE  REVOLUTION  IN  CONNECTICUT  AND  NEW  YORK. 

CHAP,  to  the  world  their  gratitude  "to  the  good  providence 

XVII 

— -~  of  God,  which  had  wonderfully  supported  their  prede- 

1689.  cessors  and  themselves  through  more  than  ordinary  diffi- 
culties and  hardships." — "We  take  it  to  be  our  duty" — 
thus  they  continue — "  to  lay  hold  of  our  former  gracious 
privileges,  in  our  charter  contained."     And  by  a  unani- 
mous vote,  the  officers,  whom  Andros  had  displaced, 
were  confirmed.     But  Walter  Clarke   wavered.     For 
nine  months  there  was  no  acknowledged  chief  magis- 

1690.  trate.     The   assembly,  accepting   Clarke's  disclaimer, 
26.'    elected  Almy.     Again  excuse  was  made.     Did  no  one 

dare  to  assume  responsibility  ?  All  eyes  turned  to  one 
of  the  old  Antinomian  exiles,  the  more  than  octogena- 
rian, Henry  Bull ;  and  the  fearless  Quaker,  true  to  the 
light  within,  employed  the  last  glimmerings  of  life  to 
restore  the  democratic  charter  of  Rhode  Island.  Once 
more  its  free  government  is  organized  :  its  seal  is  re- 
newed; the  symbol,  an  anchor;  the  motto,  HOPE. 

Massachusetts  rose  in  arms,  and  perfected  its  revolu- 
tion without  concert ;  "  the  amazing  news  did  soon  fly 
like  lightning ; "  and  the  people  of  Connecticut  spurned 
the  government,  which  Andros  had  appointed,  and 
which  they  had  always  feared  it  was  a  sin  to  obey. 
The  charter,  discolored,  but  not  effaced,  was  taken 
May 9.  from  its  hiding-place  ;  an  assembly  was  convened ;  and, 
in  spite  of  the  FINIS  of  Andros,  new  chapters  were  be- 
gun in  the  records  of  freedom.  Suffolk  county,  on  Long 
Island,  rejoined  Connecticut. 

New  York  also  shared  the  impulse,  but  with  less 
unanimity.  "  The  Dutch  plot"  was  matured  by  Jacob 
Leisler,a  man  of  energy,  but  passionate  and  ill-educated, 
and  not  possessed  of  that  happy  natural  sagacity  which 
elicits  a  rule  of  action  from  its  own  instincts.  But  the 
common  people  among  the  Dutch,  led  by  Leisler  and 


THE  REVOLUTION  IN  CONNECTICUT  AND  NEW  IORK.    449 

his  son-in-law  Milborne,  insisted  on  proclaiming  the  CHAP 
stadtholder  king  of  England.  ~~^- 

In  New  Jersey  there  was  no  insurrection.  The 
inhabitants  were  unwilling  to  invoke  the  interference 
of  the  proprietaries.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt,  that, 
in  the  several  towns,  officers  were  chosen,  as  before, 

by  the  inhabitants  themselves,    to   regulate    all  local 

ft 

affairs  ;  while  the  provincial  government,  as  established 
by  James  II.,  fell  with  Andros.  We  have  already  seen  1689 
that  Maryland  had  also  perfected  a  revolution,  in 
which  Protestant  intolerance,  as  well  as  popular  lib- 
erty, had  acted  its  part.  The  passions  of  the  Mo- 
hawks, also,  are  kindled  by  the  certain  prospect  of  an 
ally;  they  chant  their  loudest  war-song,  and  prepare 
to  descend  on  Montreal. 

Thus  did  a  popular  insurrection,  beginning  at  Bos- 
ton, extend  to  the  Chesapeake,  and  to  the  wilderness. 
This  New  England  revolution  "  made  a  great  noise  in 
the  world."  Its  object  was  Protestant  liberty;  and 
William  and  Mary,  the  Protestant  sovereigns,  were 
proclaimed  with  rejoicings  such  as  America  had  never 
before  known  in  its  intercourse  with  England. 

Could  it  be  that  America  was  deceived  in  her  confi- 
dence ;  that  she  had  but  substituted  the  absolute  sove- 
reignty of  parliament,  which  to  her  would  prove  the 
sovereignty  of  a  commercial  aristocracy,  for  the  despot- 
ism of  the  Stuarts?  Boston  was  the  centre  of  the 
revolution  which  now  spread  to  the  Chesapeake ;  in 
less  than  a  century,  it  would  commence  a  revolution 
for  humanity,  and  rouse  a  spirit  of  power  to  emancipate 
the  world. 

VOL.  II.  57 


450 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 


THE  RESULT  THUS  FAR. 

CHAP.  THUS  have  we  traced,  almost  exclusively  from  con- 
^  temporary  documents  and  records,  the  colonization  of 
the  twelve  oldest  states  of  our  Union.  At  the  period 
of  the  great  European  revolution  of  1688,  they  con- 
tained not  very  many  beyond  two  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants,  of  whom  MASSACHUSETTS,  with  Plymouth 
and  Maine,  may  have  had  forty-four  thousand  ;  NEW 
HAMPSHIRE  and  RHODE  ISLAND,  with  Providence,  each 
six  thousand ;  CONNECTICUT,  from  seventeen  to  twenty 
thousand  ;  that  is,  all  New  England,  seventy-five  thou- 
sand souls  ;J  NEW  YORK,  not  less  than  twenty  thousand; 
NEW  JERSEY,  half  as  many;  PENNSYLVANIA  and  DEL- 
AWARE, perhaps  twelve  thousand  ;  MARYLAND,  twenty- 
five  thousand  ;  VIRGINIA,  fifty  thousand,  or  more ;  and 
the  two  CAROLINAS,  which  then  included  the  soil  of 
Georgia,  probably  not  less  than  eight  thousand  souls. 

The  emigration  of  the  fathers  of  these  twelve  com- 
monwealths, with  the  planting  of  the  principles  on  which 
they  rested,  though,  like  the  introduction  of  Christian- 

i  Neal,  ii.  601.     Sir  Wm.  Petty,  less  in  1720.     The  statements  in  the 

75,  says  150,000.    Brattle  says,  in  text  are    made  by   inductions,  and 

1708,  in  N.  England,  from  100  to  are,  I  believe,  substantially  correct 

120,000.    This  is   right,  and  corre-  The   positive    data  in    those   days 

spends  with  other  data.     In  the  ac-  are  half  the  time  notoriously  false  ; 

count  for  N.E.  for  1688, 1  have  con-  as    the    statements    of   Randolph, 

fidence.  Neal  blunders  about  Boston,  The  account    in    Humphrey  much 

which, in  1790,  had  not  20,000,  much  underrates  Virginia. 


ELEMENTS  OF  OUR  COUNTRY   A  FREE  PEOPLE.       451 

ity  into  Rome,   but  little  regarded  by  contemporary  CHAP 
writers,  was  the  most  momentous  event  of  the  seven- 
teenth  century.     The  elements  of  our  country,  such  as 
she  exists  to-day,  were  already  there. 

Of  the  institutions  of  the  Old  World,  monarchy  had 
no  motive  to  emigrate,  and  was  present  only  by  its 
shadow;  in  the  proprietary  governments,  by  the  shadow 
of  a  shadow.  The  feudal  aristocracy  had  accomplished 
its  mission  in  Europe ;  it  could  not  gain  new  life 
among  the  equal  hardships  of  the  wilderness ;  in  at 
least  four  of  the  twelve  colonies,  it  did  not  originally 
exist  at  all,  and,  in  the  rest,  had  scarcely  a  monument 
except  in  the  forms  of  holding  property.  Priestcraft 
did  hot  emigrate  ;  by  the  steadfast  attraction  of  inter- 
est, it  was  retained  in  the  Old  World  ;  to  the  forests  of 
America,  religion  came  as  a  companion ;  the  American 
mind  never  bowed  to  an  idolatry  of  forms  ;  and  there 
was  not  a  prelate  in  the  whole  English  part  of  the  conti- 
nent. The  municipal  corporations  of  the  European 
commercial  world,  the  close  intrenchments  of  burghers 
against  the  landed  aristocracy,  could  not  be  transferred 
to  our  shores,  where  no  baronial  castles  demanded  the 
concerted  opposition  of  guilds.  Nothing  came  from 
Europe  but  a  free  people.  The  people,  separating  it- 
self from  all  other  elements  of  previous  civilization ; 
the  people,  self-confiding  and  industrious ;  the  people, 
wise  by  all  traditions  that  favored  popular  happiness, — 
the  people  alone  broke  away  from  European  influence, 
and  in  the  New  World  laid  the  foundations  of  oui 
republic , 

"  Plebeian,  though  ingenuous  the  stock 
From  which  her  graces  and  her  honors  sprung." 

The  people  alone  were  present  in  power.     Like  Moses, 
they  had  escaped  from  Egyptian  bondage  to  the  wil- 


Cotton 


452         AN  ANGLO-SAXON  PEOPLE.      CHARACTER  OF  VIRGINIA. 

CHAP,  derness,  that  God  might  there  give  them  the  pattern 
-~«~  of  the  tabernacle.  Like  the  favored  evangelist,  the 
exiles,  in  their  western  Patmos,  listened  to  the  angel 
that  dictated  the  new  gospel  of  freedom.  Over- 
whelmed in  Europe,  popular  liberty,  like  the  fabled 
fountain  of  the  sacred  Arethusa,  gushed  forth  profusely 
in  remoter  fields. 

Of  the  nations  of  the  European  world,  the  chief  emi- 
gration was  from  that  Germanic  race  most  famed  for  the 
love  of  personal  independence.  The  immense  majority 
of  American  families  were  not  of  "  the  high  folk  of 
Normandie,"  but  were  of  "  the  low  men,"  who  were 
Saxons.  This  is  true  of  New  England  ;  it  is  true  of 
the  south.  Shall  the  Virginians  be  described  4n  a 
word  ?  They  were  Anglo-Saxons  in  the  woods  again, 
with  the  inherited  culture  and  intelligence  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  "  The  major  part  of  the  house  of  bur- 
gesses now  consisted  of  Virginians  that  never  saw  a 
town."  The  Anglo-Saxon  mind,  in  its  serenest  nation- 
ality, neither  distorted  by  fanaticism,  nor  subdued  by 
superstition,  nor  wounded  by  persecution,  nor  excited 
by  new  ideas,  but  fondly  cherishing  the  active  instinct 
for  personal  freedom,  secure  possession,  and  legislative 
power,  such  as  belonged  to  it  before  the  reformation, 
and  existed  independent  of  the  reformation,  had  made 
its  dwelling-place  in  the  empire  of  Powhatan.  With 
consistent  firmness  of  character,  the  Virginians  wel- 
comed legislative  power ;  displaced  an  unpopular  gov- 
ernor ;  at  the  overthrow  of  monarchy,  established  the 
freest  government  by  happy  intuition ;  rebelled  against 
the  politics  of  the  Stuarts ;  and,  uneasy  at  the  royalist 
principles  which  prevailed  in  its  forming  aristocracy, 
soon  manifested  the  tendency  of  the  age  at  the  polls 
"  The  inclinations  of  the  country,"  wrote  Spotswood, 


OUR  ANCESTORS  A  CHRISTIAN   PEOPLE.  453 

when  the  generation  born  during  the  period  of  Bacon's  CHAP. 

rebellion  had  grown  to  maturity,  "  are  rendered  myste ^ 

rious  by  a  new  and  unaccountable  humor,  which  hath  171° 
obtained  in  several  counties,  of  excluding  the  gentlemen 
from  being  burgesses,  and  choosing  only  persons  of  mean 
figure  and  character."  But  Spotswood,  a  royalist,  a  High 
Churchman,  a  traveller,  reverenced  the  virtues  of  the 
people.  "  I  will  do  justice  to  this  country,"  he  writes 
to  the  bishop  of  London — and  his  evidence  is  without 
suspicion  of  a  bias;  "I  have  observed  here  less  swear- 
ing and  prophaneness,  less  drunkenness  and  debauch- 
ery, less  uncharitable  feuds  and  animosities,  and  less 
knaverys  and  villanys,  than  in  any  part  of  the  world 
where  my  lot  has  been." 

Of  the  systems  of  philosophy  of  the  Old  World,  the 
colonists,  including  their  philosophy  in  their  religion, 
as  the  people  up  to  that  time  had  always  done,  were 
neither  skeptics  nor  sensualists,  but  Christians.  The 
school  that  bows  to  the  senses  as  the  sole  interpreter 
of  truth,  had  little  share  in  colonizing  our  America. 
The  colonists  from  Maine  to  Carolina,  the  adventurous 
companions  of  Smith,  the  Puritan  felons  that  freighted 
the  fleet  of  Winthrop,  the  Quaker  outlaws  that  fled  from 
jails  with  a  Newgate  prisoner  as  their  sovereign, — all 
had  faith  in  God  and  in  the  soul.  The  system  which 
had  been  revealed  in  Judea, — the  system  which  com- 
bines and  perfects  the  symbolic  wisdom  of  the  Orient  and 
the  reflective  genius  of  Greece, — the  system,  conforming 
to  reason,  yet  kindling  enthusiasm ;  always  hastening 
reform,  yet  always  conservative ;  proclaiming  absolute 
equality  among  men,  yet  not  suddenly  abolishing  the 
unequal  institutions  of  society;  guarantying  absolute 
freedom,  yet  invoking  the  inexorable  restrictions  of 
duty  in  the  highest  degree  theoretical,  and  yet  in 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  REFORMATION. 

CHAP,  the  highest  degree  practical ;  awakening  the  inner  man 
-^v~  to  a  consciousness  of  his  destiny,  and  yet  adapted  with 
exact  harmony  to  the  outward  world ;  at  once  divine 
and  humane, — this  system  was  professed  in  every  part 
of  our  widely-extended  country,  and  cradled  our  free- 
dom. 

Our  fathers  were  not  only  Christians ;  they  were, 
even  in  Maryland  by  a  vast  majority,  elsewhere  almost 
unanimously,  Protestants.  Now  the  Protestant  refor- 
mation, considered  in  its  largest  influence  on  politics, 
was  the  common  people  awakening  to  freedom  of 
mind. 

During  the  decline  of  the  Roman  empire,  the  op- 
pressed invoked  the  power  of  Christianity  to  resist  the 
tyranny  of  brute  force  ;  and  the  merciful  priest  assumed 
the  office  of  protector.  The  tribunes  of  Rome,  ap- 
pointed by  the  people,  had  been  declared  inviolable  by 
the  popular  vote  ;  the  new  tribunes  of  humanity,  de- 
riving their  office  from  religion,  and  ordained  by  religion 
to  an  inviolable  sanctity,  defended  the  poor  man's 
house  against  lust  by  the  sacrament  of  marriage  ;  re- 
strained arbitrary  passion  by  a  menace  of  the  misery 
due  to  sin  unrepented  and  unatoned ;  and  taught  respect 
for  naked  humanity  by  sprinkling  every  new-born  child 
with  the  water  of  life,  confirming  every  youth,  bearing 
the  oil  of  consolation  to  every  death- bed,  and  sharing 
freely  with  every  human  being  the  consecrated  emblem 
of  God  present  with  man. 

But  the  protection  from  priests  became  a  tyranny 
Expressing  all  moral  truth  by  the  mysteries  of  symbols, 
and  reserving  to  itself  the  administration  of  the 
seven  sacraments,  the  priesthood  claimed  a  monopoly 
of  thought,  and  exercised  an  absolute  spiritual  domin- 
ion. Human  bondage  was  deeply  riveted  ;  for  tyranny 


PERVERSE  USE  OF  THE  SEVEN  SACRAMENTS.        455 

had  fastened  on  the  affections,  the  understanding,  and  CHAP 

reason.     The  priesthood,  ordaining  its  own  successors,  •- 

ruled  human  destiny  at  birth,  on  entering  active  life, 
at  marriage,  in  the  hour  when  frailty  breathed  its  con- 
fession, in  the  hour  when  faith  aspired  to  communion 
\vith  God,  and  at  death. 

The  fortunes  of  the  human  race  are  embarked  in  a 
lifeboat,  and  cannot  be  wrecked.  Mind  refuses  to  rest; 
and  active  freedom  is  a  necessary  condition  of  intelli- 
gent existence.  The  instinctive  love  of  truth  could 
warm  even  the  scholastic  theologian ;  but  the  light 
which  it  kindled  for  him  was  oppressed  by  verbal  eru- 
dition, and  its  flickering  beams,  scarce  lighting  the  cell 
of  the  solitary,  could  not  fill  the  colonnade  of  the  clois- 
ter, far  less  reach  the  busy  world. 

Sensualism  also  was  free  to  mock  superstition. 
Scoffing  infidelity  put  on  the  cardinal's  hat,  and  made 
even  the  Vatican  ring  with  ribaldry.  But  the  indiffer- 
ence of  dissoluteness  has  no  creative  power;  it  does 
but  substitute  the  despotism  of  the  senses  for  a  spiritual 
despotism  ;  it  never  brought  enfranchisements  to  the 
multitude. 

The  feudal  aristocracy  resisted  spiritual  authority  by 
the  sword  ;  but  it  was  only  to  claim  greater  license  for 
their  own  violence.  Temporal  sovereigns,  jealous  of  a 
power  which  threatened  to  depose  the  unjust  prince, 
were  ready  to  set  prelacy  against  prelacy,  the  national 
church  against  the  Catholic  church,  but  it  was  only  to 
assert  the  absolute  liberty  of  despotism. 

By  slow  degrees  the  students  of  the  humanities,  as 
they  were  called,  polished  scholars,  learned  lessons  of 
freedom  from  Grecian  and  Roman  example  ;  but  they 
hid  their  patriotism  in  a  dead  language,  and  forfeited 
the  claim  to  higher  influence  and  enduring  fame  by 


466  WHY   WICKLIFFE   IS  A   BENEFACTOR   TO  AMERICA. 

CHAP,  suppressing  truth,  and  yielding  independence  to  the  m- 
— -~  terests  of  priests  and  princes. 

Human  enfranchisement  could  not  advance  securely 

V 

but  through  the  people ;  for  whom  philosophy  was 
included  in  religion,  and  religion  veiled  in  symbols. 
There  had  ever  been  within  the  Catholic  church  men 
who  preferred  truth  to  forms,  justice  to  despotic  force. 
"  Dominion,"  said  Wickliffe,  "  belongs  to  grace ; " 
meaning,  as  I  believe,  that  the  feudal  government, 
which  rested  on  the  sword,  should  yield  to  a  govern- 
ment resting  on  moral  principles.  And  he  knew 
the  right  method  to  hasten  the  coming  revolution. 
"  Truth,"  he  asserted  with  wisest  benevolence,  "  truth 
shines  more  brightly  the  more  widely  it  is  diffused;" 
and,  catching  the  plebeian  language  that  lived  on  the 
lips  of  the  multitude,  he  gave  England  the  Bible  in  the 
vulgar  tongue.  A  timely  death  could  alone  place  him 
beyond  persecution ;  his  bones  were  disinterred  and 
burnt,  and  his  ashes  thrown  on  the  waters  of  the  Avon. 
But  his  fame  brightens  as  time  advances ;  when  Amer- 
ica traces  the  lineage  of  her  intellectual  freedom,  she 
acknowledges  the  benefactions  of  Wickliffe. 

In  the  next  century,  a  kindred  spirit  emerged  in 
Bohemia,  and  tyranny,  quickened  by  the  nearer  ap 
proach  of  danger,  summoned  John  Huss  to  its  tribunal, 
set  on  his  head  a  paper  cap,  begrimmed  with  hobgob- 
lins, permitted  the  bishops  to  strip  him  and  curse  him,  and 
consigned  one  of  the  gentlest  and  purest  of  our  race  id 
the  flames.  "  Holy  simplicity ! "  exclaimed  he,  as  a  peas 
ant  piled  fagots  on  the  fire ;  still  preserving  faith  ir 
humanity,  (the  Quakers  afterwards  treasured  up  the 
example,)  though  its  noblest  instincts  could  be  so 
perverted;  and,  perceiving  the  only  mode  through  which 
reform  could  prevail,  he  gave  as  a  last  counsel  to  his 


LUTHER  SUCCEEDS  IN   A  REFORMATION.  457 

multitude    of     followers — "  Put    not    jour    trust    in  CHAP 
princes."     Of  the  descendants  of  his  Bohemian  disci- 
pies,  a  few  certainly  came  to  us  by  way  of  Holland ;  his 
example  was  for  all. 

Years  are  as  days  in  the  providence  of  God  and  in 
the  progress  of  the  race.  After  long  waiting,  an  Au- 
gustine monk  at  Wittenberg,  who  had  seen  the  lewd 
corruptions  of  the  Roman  court,  and  who  loathed  the 
deceptions  of  a  coarse  superstition,  brooded  in  his  cell 
over  the  sins  of  his  age,  and  the  method  of  rescuing  con- 
science from  the  dominion  of  forms,  till  he  discovered 
a  cure  for  its  vices  in  the  simple  idea  of  justification  by 
faith  alone.  With  this  principle,  easily  intelligible  to 
the  universal  mind,  and  spreading,  like  an  epidemic, 
widely  and  rapidly, — a  principle  strong  enough  to  dis- 
lodge every  superstition,  to  overturn  every  tyranny,  to 
enfranchise,  convert,  and  save  the  world, — he  broke  the 
wand  of  papal  supremacy,  scattered  the  lazars  of  the 
monasteries,  and  drove  the  penance  of  fasts,  and  the 
terrors  of  purgatory,  masses  for  the  dead,  and  indulgences 
for  the  living,  into  the  paradise  of  fools.  That  his  prin- 
ciple contained  a  democratic  revolution,  Luther  saw 
clearly ;  he  acknowledged  that  "  the  rulers  and  the 
lawyers  needed  a  reformer ; "  but  he  "  could  not  hope 
that  they  would  soon  get  a  wise  one,"  and  in  a  stormy 
age,  leaving  to  futurity  its  office,  accepted  shelter  from 
feudal  sovereigns.  "  It  is  a  heathenish  doctrine" — 
such  was  his  compromise  with  princes — "  that  a  wicked 
ruler  may  be  deposed." — "  Do  not  pipe  to  the  popu- 
lace, for  it  any  how  delights  in  running  mad." — "God 
lets  rogues  rule  for  the  people's  sin." — "  A  crazy 
populace  is  a  desperate,  cursed  thing ;  a  tyrant  is  the 
right  clog  to  tie  on  that  dog's  neck." — And  yet,  adds 
Luther,  "  I  have  no  word  of  comfort  for  the  usurers 
VOL.  ii.  58 


458          ANABAPTISTS  A   PARTY   OF  DEMOCRATIC  REFORMERS 

SWAP,  and  scoundrels  among  the  aristocracy,  whose  vices 
— <~-  make  the  common  people  esteem  the  whole  aristocracy 
to  be  out  and  out  worthless."  And  he  praised  the 
printing-press,  as  the  noblest  gift  of  human  genius. 
He  forbade  priests  and  bishops  to  make  laws  how  men 
shall  believe  ;  for,  said  he,  "  man's  authority  stretches 
neither  to  heaven  nor  to  the  soul."  Nor  did  he  leave 
Truth  to  droop  in  a  cloister  or  wither  in  a  palace,  but 
carried  her  forth  in  her  freedom  to  the  multitude  ;  and 
when  tyrants  ordered  the  German  peasantry  to  deliver 
up  their  Saxon  New  Testament,  "  No,"  cried  Luther, 
"not  a  single  leaf."  He  pointed  out  the  path  in 
which  civilization  should  travel,  though  he  could  not  go 
on  to  the  end  of  the  journey.  In  him,  freedom  of  mind 
was  like  the  morning  sun,  as  it  still  struggles  with  the 
sickly  dews  and  vanishing  spectres  of  darkness. 

In  pursuing  the  history  of  our  country,  we  shall  here 
after  meet  in  the  largest  Lutheran  state,  at  one  time 
an  active  ally,  at  another  a  neutral  friend.  The  direct 
influence  of  Lutheranism  on  America  was  inconsidera- 
ble. New  Sweden  had  the  faith  and  the  politics  of 
the  German  reformer ;  no  democratic  ideas  distracted 
its  single-minded  loyalty. 

The  Anglican  church  in  Virginia  may,  in  one  sense, 
be  traced  through  Cranmer  to  Luther.  But  as  the 
New  World  sheltered  neither  bishops  nor  princes,  in 
respect  to  political  opinion,  the  English  church  was 
there  but  an  enfranchisement  from  Popery,  favoring 
humanity  and  freedom.  The  inhabitants  of  Virginia 
were  conformists  after  the  pattern  of  Bacon1  and  of 

1  Lord  Bacon  was  a  Church-of-  the   Puritans,  though  the    English 

England   man ;    his  tracts   on   the  governor  did.     Every  one   has  his 

church  appear  to  me   to  be  in  ac-  faults,  and  to  the  Virginians   the 

cord  with  the   natural   feeling  of  Puritans  seemed  too  peevish  about 

Virginia,     Its  people  did  not  hate  prayer.     Jefferson,  in  his  benevo 


CALVINISM   IS   GRADUAL    REPUBLICANISM.  459 

Shakspeare,  rather  than  of  Whitgift  and  Laud.     Of  CHAP 

XVIIL 

themselves  they  asked  no  questions  about  the  surplice,  ~~~ 
and  never  wore  the  badge  of  non-resisting  obedience. 

The  meaner  and  more  ignoble  the  party,  the  more 
general  and  comprehensive  are  its  principles;  for  none 
but  principles  of  universal  freedom  can  reach  the  mean- 
est condition.  The  serf  defends  the  widest  philan- 
thropy; for  that  alone  can  break  his  bondage.  The 
plebeian  sect  of  Anabaptists,  "  the  scum  of  the  refor- 
mation," with  greater  consistency  than  Luther,  ap- 
plied the  doctrine  of  the  reformation  to  the  social 
relations  of  life,  and  threatened  an  end  to  kingcraft, 
spiritual  dominion,  tithes,  and  vassalage.  The  party 
was  trodden  under  foot,  with  foul  reproaches  and  most 
arrogant  scorn ;  and  its  history  is  written  in  the  blood 
of  myriads  of  the  German  peasantry ;  but  its  princi- 
ples, safe  in  their  immortality,  escaped  with  Roger 
Williams  to  Providence  ;  and  his  colony  is  the  witness 
that,  naturally,  the  paths  of  the  Baptists  were  paths 
of  freedom,  pleasantness,  and  peace. 

Luther  finished  his  mission  in  the  heart  of  Germany, 
under  the  safeguard  of  princes.  In  Geneva,  a  republic 
on  the  confines  of  France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  Calvin, 
appealing  to  the  people  for  support,  continued  the  career 
of  enfranchisement  by  planting  the  institutions  which 
nursed  the  minds  of  Rousseau,  Necker,  and  De  Stael. 

The  political  character  of  Calvinism,  which,  with 
one  consent  and  with  instinctive  judgment,  the  mon- 

Innce,     palliating    New     England  ated  among  men  who  were  settlers 

cruelties,  does  not  ascribe  the  clem-  in  Virginia.     When  left  to   them- 

ency  of  Virginia  "to  the  modera-  selves,  from  the  days  of  John  Smith, 

tion  of  the  church  or  spirit  of  the  I  think  the  Virginians  were  always 

legislature."     A  careful  considera-  tolerant.     I    have   already   quoted 

tion  of  the  laws  and  other  evidence,  the  important  testimony  of  Whita- 

has  left  me  no  option  but  to  form  a  ker,  a  man  sincere  and  charitable, 

different  opinion.     I  know   of   no  like  Eliot  and  Brainard. 
act  of  ciuel  persecution  that  origin- 


460  POLITICAL  MEANING  OF  THE  FIVE  POINTS. 

CHAP,  archs  of  that  day  feared  as  republicanism,  and  which 

XVIII.  f 

Charles  II.  declared  a  religion  unfit  for  a  gentleman. 

is  expressed  in  a  single  word — -predestination.  Did 
a  proud  aristocracy  trace  its  lineage  through  genera- 
tions of  a  high-born  ancestry,  the  republican  reformer, 
with  a  loftier  pride,  invaded  the  invisible  world,  and 
from  the  book  of  life  brought  down  the  record  of  the 
noblest  enfranchisement,  decreed  from  all  eternity  by 
the  King  of  kings.  His  few  converts  defied  the  op- 
posing world  as  a  world  of  reprobates,  whom  God  had 
despised  and  rejected.  To  them  the  senses  were  a 
totally-depraved  foundation,  on  which  neither  truth  nor 
goodness  could  rest.  They  went  forth  in  confidence 
that  men  who  were  kindling  with  the  same  exalted 
instincts,  would  listen  to  their  voice,  and  be  effectually 
"  called  into  the  brunt  of  the  battle "  by  their  side. 
And,  standing  serenely  amidst  the  crumbling  fabrics  of 
centuries  of  superstitions,  they  had  faith  in  one  another : 
and  the  martyrdoms  of  Cambray,  the  fires  of  Smith- 
field,  the  surrender  of  benefices  by  two  thousand  non- 
conforming  Presbyterians,  attest  their  perseverance. 

Such  was  the  system,  which,  for  a  century  and  a 
half,  assumed  the  guardianship  of  liberty  for  the  English 
world.  "  A  wicked  tyrant  is  better  than  a  wicked 
war,"  said  Luther,  preaching  non-resistance ;  and 
Cranmer  echoed  back,  "  God's  people  are  called  to 
render  obedience  to  governors,  altho'  they  be  wick- 
ed or  wrong-doers,  and  in  no  case  to  resist." — "  Civil 
magistrates,"  replied  English  Calvinism, — I  quote  the 
very  words,  in  which,  under  an  extravagant  form,  its 
champion  asserted  the  paramount  power  of  general 
principles,  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  freedom, — "civil 
magistrates  must  be  servants  unto  the  church ;  they 
must  remember  to  submit  their  sceptres,  to  throw  down 


CALVINISM   MOULDED  THE   LAWS   OF  MASSACHUSETTS          461 

their  crowns  before  the   church,  yea,  as  the  prophet  CHAP. 

speaketh,  to  lick  the  dust  of  the  feet  of  the  church."  ~ 

To  advance  intellectual  freedom,  Calvinism  denied,  ab- 
solutely denied,  the  sacrament  of  ordination;  thus 
breaking  up  the  great  monopoly  of  priestcraft,  and 
scattering  the  ranks  of  superstition.  "  Kindle  the  fire 
before  my  face,"  said  Jerome  meekly,  as  he  resigned 
himself  to  his  fate ;  to  quench  the  fires  of  persecution 
forever,  Calvinism  resisted  with  fire  and  blood,  and, 
shouldering  the  musket,  proved,  as  a  foot-soldier,  that, 
on  the  field  of  battle,  the  invention  of  gunpowder  had 
levelled  the  plebeian  and  the  knight.  To  restrain  ab- 
solute monarchy  in  France,  in  Scotland,  in  Eng- 
land, it  allied  itself  with  the  party  of  the  past,  the  de- 
caying feudal  aristocracy,  which  it  was  sure  to  outlive ; 
to  protect  itself  against  feudal  aristocracy,  it  infused 
itself  into  the  mercantile  class,  and  the  inferior  gentry ; 
to  secure  a  life  in  the  public  mind,  in  Geneva,  in 
Scotland,  wherever  it  gained  dominion,  it  invoked  in- 
telligence for  the  people,  and  in  every  parish  planted 
the  common  school. 

In  an  age  of  commerce,  to  stamp  its  influence  on  the 
New  World,  it  went  on  board  the  fleet  of  Winthrop, 
and  was  wafted  to  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts..  Is  it 
denied  that  events  follow  principles,  that  mind  rules  the 
world  ?  The  institutions  of  Massachusetts  were  the 
exact  counterpart  of  its  religious  system.  Calvinism 
claimed  heaven  for  the  elect :  Massachusetts  gave 
franchises  to  the  members  of  the  visible  church.  Cal- 
vinism rejected  the  herd  of  reprobates :  Massachu- 
setts inexorably  disfranchised  Churchmen,  royalists, 
and  all  world's  people.  Calvinism  overthrew  priest- 
craft :  in  Massachusetts,  none  but  the  magistrate  could 
marry ;  the  brethren  could  ordain.  Calvinism  saw  in 


462  PROGRESS  FROM  CALVINISM. 

CHAP,  goodness  infinite  joy,  in  evil  infinite  woe,  and,  recog- 
~~~  nizing  no  other  abiding  distinctions,  opposed  secretly, 
but  surely,  hereditary  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and  bond- 
age :  Massachusetts  owned  no  king  but  the  King  of 
heaven  ;  no  aristocracy,  but  of  the  redeemed ;  no  bond- 
age, but  the  hopeless,  infinite  and  eternal  bondage  of 
sin.  Calvinism  invoked  intelligence  against  Satan,  the 
great  enemy  of  the  human  race ;  and  the  farmers  and 
seamen  of  Massachusetts  nourished  its  college  with 
corn  and  strings  of  wampum,  and  in  every  village  built 
the  free  school.  Calvinism,  in  its  zeal  against  Rome, 
reverenced  the  Bible  even  to  idolatry  ;  and  in  Massa- 
chusetts, the  songs  of  Deborah  and  David  were  sung 
without  change  ;  hostile  Algonquins,  like  the  Canaan- 
ites,  were  exterminated  or  enslaved ;  and  a  peevish 
woman  was  hanged,  because  it  was  written,  "  the  witch 
shall  die." 

"  Do  not  stand  still  with  Luther  and  Calvin,"  said 
the  father  of  the  Pilgrims,  confident  in  human  advance- 
ment. From  Luther  to  Calvin,  there  was  progress ; 
from  Geneva  to  New  England,  there  was  more.  Cal- 
vinism,— I  speak  of  its  political  character,  in  an  age 
when  politics  were  controlled  by  religious  sects  ;  I  pass 
no  judgment  on  opinions  which  relate  to  an  unseen 
world, — Calvinism,  such  as  it  existed,  in  opposition  to 
prelacy  and  feudalism,  could  not  continue  in  a  world 
where  there  was  no  prelacy  to  combat,  no  aristocracy  to 
overthrow.  It  therefore  received  developments  which 
were  imprinted  on  institutions.  It  migrated  to  the  Con- 
necticut ;  and  there,  forgetting  its  foes,  it  put  off  its 
armor  of  religious  pride.  "  You  go  to  receive  your  re- 
ward," was  said  to  Hooker  on  his  death-bed.  "  I  go 
to  receive  mercy,"  was  his  reply.  For  predestination 
Connecticut  substituted  benevolence.  It  hanged  no 


UNIVERSALITY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  MIND.  463 

quakers,  it  mutilated  no  heretics.    Its  early  legislation  CHAP 
is  the  breath  of  reason  and  charity  ;  and  Jonathan  Ed-  — ~ 
wards  did  but  sum  up  the  political  history  of  his  native 
commonwealth  for  a  century,  when,  anticipating,  and 
in  his  consistency  excelling,  Godwin  and  Bentham,  he 
gave   Calvinism  its  political  euthanasia,  by  declaring 
virtue  to  consist  in  universal  love. 

In  Boston,  with  Henry  Vane  and  Anne  Hutchinson, 
"  Calvinism  ran  to  seed  ; "  and  the  seed  was  "  incor- 
ruptible." Election  implies  faith,  and  faith  freedom. 
Claiming  the  Spirit  of  God  as  the  companion  of  man, 
the  Antinomians  asserted  absolute  freedom  of  mind. 
For  predestination  they  substituted  consciousness.  "  If 
the  ordinances  be  all  taken  away,  Christ  cannot  be ; " 
the  forms  of  truth  may  perish  ;  truth  itself  is  immortal. 
"  God  will  be  ordinances  to  us."  The  exiled  doctrine, 
which  established  conscience  as  the  highest  court  of 
appeal,  fled  to  the  island  gift  of  Miantonomoh ;  and 
the  records  of  Rhode  Island,  like  the  beautiful  career 
of  Henry  Vane,  are  the  commentary  on  the  true  import 
of  the  creed. 

Faith  in  predestination  alone  divided  the  Antino- 
mians from  the  Quakers.  Both  reverenced  and  obeyed 
the  voice  of  conscience  in  its  freedom.  The  near  re- 
semblance was  perceived  so  soon  as  the  fame  of 
George  Fox  reached  America;  and  the  principal  fol- 
lowers of  Anne  Hutchinson,  Coddington,  Mary  Dyer, 
Henry  Bull,  and  a  majority  of  the  people,  avowed 
themselves  to  be  Quakers. 

Thus  had  the  principle  of  freedom  of  mind,  first  as- 
serted for  the  common  people,  under  a  religious  form, 
by  WicklifFe,  been  pursued  by  a  series  of  plebeian  sects, 
till  it  at  last  reached  a  perfect  development,  coinciding 
with  the  highest  attainment  of  European  philosophy. 


464     THE  THREE  RACES  IN  PRESENCE  OF  ONE  ANOTHER. 

CHAP.  By  giving  a  welcome  to  every  sect,  America  was 
-"v^  safe  against  narrow  bigotry.  At  the  same  time,  the 
moral  unity  of  the  forming  nation  was  not  impaired 
Of  the  various  parties  into  which  the  reformation  di- 
vided the  people,  each,  from  the  proudest  to  the  most 
puny  sect,  rallied  round  a  truth.  But  as  truth  never 
contradicts  itself,  the  collision  of  sects  could  but  elimi- 
nate error;  and  the  American  mind,  in  the  largest 
sense  eclectic,  struggled  for  universality,  while  it  as- 
serted freedom.  How  had  the  world  been  governed 
by  despotism  and  bigotry;  by  superstition  and  the 
sword ;  by  the  ambition  of  conquest  and  the  pride  of 
privilege !  And  now  the  happy  age  gave  birth  to  a 
people  which  was  to  own  no  authority  as  the  highest, 
but  the  free  conviction  of  the  public  mind. 

Thus  had  Europe  given  to  America  her  sons  and 
her  culture.  She  was  the  mother  of  our  men,  and  of 
the  ideas  which  guided  them  to  greatness.  The  rela- 
tions of  our  country  to  humanity  were  already  wider. 
The  three  races,  the  Caucasian,  the  Ethiopian  and 
the  American,  were  in  presence  of  one  another  on  our 
soil.  Would  the  red  man  disappear  entirely  from  the 
forests,  which,  for  thousands  of  years,  had  sheltered  him 
safely  ?  Would  the  black  man,  in  the  end,  be  benefited 
by  the  crimes  of  mercantile  avarice  ?  At  the  close  of 
the  middle  age,  the  Caucasian  race  was  in  nearly  ex- 
clusive possession  of  the  elements  of  civilization,  while 
the  Ethiopian  remained  in  insulated  barbarism.  No 
commerce  connected  it  with  Europe ;  no  inter- 
course existed  by  travel,  by  letters,  or  by  war;  it 
was  too  feeble  to  attempt  an  invasion  of  a  Christian 
prince  or  an  Arab  dynasty.  The  slave-trade  united 
the  ra-  es  by  an  indissoluble  bond ;  the  first  ship  that 
brought  Africans  to  America,  was  a  sure  pledge,  that, 


FRANCE,   ENGLAND,  AND  THE   RISING  COLONIES.  465 

in  due  time,  ships  from  the  New  World  would  carry  CHAP 

XVII. 

the  equal  blessings  of  Christianity  to  the  burning  plains  — ^ 
of  Nigritia,  that  descendants  of  Africans  would  toil  for 
the  benefits  of  European  civilization. 

That  America  should  benefit  the  African,  was  always 
the  excuse  for  the  slave-trade.  Would  America  bene- 
fit Europe  ?  The  probable  influence  of  the  New 
World  on  the  Old  became  a  prize  question  at  Paris ; 
but  not  one  of  the  writers  divined  the  true  answer. 
They  looked  for  it  in  commerce,  in  mines,  in  natural 
productions ;  and  they  should  have  looked  for  revolu- 
tions, as  a  consequence  of  moral  power.  The  Greek 
colonists  planted  free  and  prosperous  cities ;  and  in  a 
following  century,  each  metropolis,  envying  the  happi- 
ness of  its  daughters,  imitated  its  institutions,  and 
rejected  kings.  Rome,  a  nation  of  soldiers,  planted 
colonies  by  the  sword ;  and  retributive  justice  merged 
its  liberties  in  absolute  despotism.  The  American 
colonists  founded  their  institutions  on  popular  freedom, 
and  "  set  an  example  to  the  nations."  Already  the 
plebeian  outcasts,  the  Anglo-Saxon  emigrants,  were  the 
hope  of  the  world.  We  are  like  the  Parthians,  said 
Norton  in  Boston  ;  our  arrows  wound  the  more  for  our 
flight.  "  Jotham  upon  Mount  Gerizim  is  bold  to  utter 
his  apologue." 

We  have  written  the  origin  of  our  country;  we  are  now 
to  pursue  the  history  of  its  wardship.  The  relations  of 
the  rising  colonies,  the  representatives  of  democratic 
freedom,  are  chiefly  with  France  and  England  ; — with 
the  monarchy  of  France,  which  was  the  representative 
of  absolute  despotism,  having  subjected  the  three  estates 
of  the  realm,  the  clergy  by  a  treaty  with  the  pope,  feu- 
dalism by  standing  armies,  the  communal  institutions 
by  executive  patronage  and  a  vigorous  police  ;  with  the 
VOL.  ii.  59 


466  FRANCE,  ENGLAND,  AND  THE  RISING  COLONIES. 

CHAP,  parliament  of  England,  which  was  the  representative 
of  aristocratic  liberties,  and  had  ratified  royalty,  pri- 
mogeniture, corporate  charters,  the  peerage,  tithes, 
prelates,  prescriptive  franchises,  and  every  established 
immunity  and  privilege.  The  three  nations  and  the 
three  systems  were,  by  the  revolution  of  1688,  brought 
into  direct  contrast  with  one  another.  At  the  same 
time,  the  English  world  was  lifted  out  of  theological 
forms,  and  entered  upon  the  career  of  commerce,  which 
had  been  prepared  by  the  navigation  acts  and  by  the 
mutual  treaties  for  colonial  monopoly  with  France  and 
Spain.  The  period  through  which  we  have  passed 
shows  why  we  are  a  free  people ;  the  coming  period 
will  show  why  we  are  a  united  people.  We  shall  meet 
no  scenes  of  more  adventure  than  the  early  scenes  in 
Virginia,  none  of  more  sublimity  than  the  Pilgrims  at 
Plymouth.  But  we  are  about  to  enter  on  a  wider 
theatre ;  and,  as  we  trace  the  progress  of  commercial 
ambition  through  events  which  shook  the  globe  from 
the  wilds  beyond  the  Alleghanies  to  the  ancient  abodes 
of  civilization  in  Hindostan,  we  shall  still  see  that  the 
selfishness  of  evil  defeats  itself,  and  God  rules  in  the 
affairs  of  men. 


END    OF   VOL.    II. 


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